Large families (in a context of lowest-low fertility): what do we know about them?

From 1961 to 2011 in Italy the average number of individuals per household decreased from 3.6 to 2.4, and the proportion of household with 6 members or more dropped from 14.4% to 1.4%. Large families (4-plus children) are often associated with poverty, but, given their rarity, it is extremely difficult to study them. They are basically unknown, especially in contexts of very low fertility. We aim to characterize large families (with 4-plus children) and to highlight what distinguishes them from families with fewer children, for both native and non-native population. Using data from the 2011 Italian Population and Housing Census, demographic characteristics of large families out of all families with children are described. In order to analyze factors associated to large families, logistic regression models are applied to predict whether families were large (four-plus children) or small (one or two children). Results suggest a socio-economic polarization of large families and a negative association with women’s education among both native and non-native populations. Only for Italian couples repartnering is a predictor of larger families and couples with self-employed men are more likely to have large families than employees. Internal cultural and institutional differences are also relevant.