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Divorce and new family structures |
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With Danish women entering the labour market in ever increasing numbers, family structures have changed dramatically during the past 40 years. Divorce rates topped in 1989. It has become quite normal to live alone, to live together and have children outside wedlock, to divorce, remarry, etc.
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| By Katarina Blomqvist |
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KVINFO.dk/ Divorce figures reached record heights in 1989 with the legal dissolution of 15,152 marriages. That same year 30,894 couples got married.
Family structures in Denmark have changed in many ways during the past 40 years. It has become quite normal to live alone, to live together without getting married, to have children outside wedlock, to divorce and start new relationships involving the co-parenting of children from previous relationships, or to be a single mother or single father. New words and expressions have entered the language to cover all eventualities.
In the 1970s the women’s movement criticised marriage and the nuclear family as being instrumental in women’s oppression. Many young people experimented with other living arrangements, open or casual sexual relationships, communes etc.
Coupledom and the nuclear family survived, however, and are still, if not a reality, then at least an ideal for most Danes.
Today, before reaching the age of 18, approximately every fourth child in Denmark will see his or her parents divorce.
No. of Divorces
| 1960 |
6,682 |
| 1970 |
9,524 |
| 1980 |
13,593 |
| 1989 |
15,152 |
| 1990 |
13,731 |
| 2000 |
14,381 |
| 2005 |
15,300 |
No. of Marriages
| 1960 |
35,897 |
| 1970 |
36,376 |
| 1980 |
26,448 |
| 1990 |
31,513 |
| 2000 |
38,388 |
| 2005 |
36,148 |
No. of children born outside marriage
| 1960 |
5,953 |
| 1970 |
7,811 |
| 1980 |
19,004 |
| 1990 |
29,435 |
| 2000 |
29,902 |
| 2005 |
29,364 |
No. of children born within marriage
| 1960 |
70,124 |
| 1970 |
62,991 |
| 1980 |
38,289 |
| 1990 |
33,998 |
| 2000 |
37,179 |
Translation: Gaye Kynoch
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