Results confirm that 43 per cent of the parents have shared residence, up from 25 per cent in 2012. The proportion of children who live permanently with their mother has decreased accordingly, from 62 per cent in 2012 to 49 per cent in 2020. The proportion of children from broken families who live with their father is still low (7 per cent).

There are significant socio-economic and demographic differences between parents who choose shared residence and parents who choose to have the child live with either the mother or the father. Among the most important findings are:

  • Parents with the lowest household incomes less often have shared residence than those with higher incomes. Parents who state that they have had problems paying expenses less often have shared residence than parents who have not had payment problems.
  • Higher educated parents more often practice shared residence than those with lower education.
  • Parents who were employed at the time of the interview more often have shared residence than parents who were not employed.
  • Six out of ten of the surveyed parental couples had been cohabiting, while four out of ten had been married. There were no differences in shared residence across union types.
  • Parents who have lived together longer more often have shared residence than those who had been in cohabiting and marital unions of shorter durations.
  • Parents with the best health are somewhat more likely to have shared residence than parents with poorer health. However, this association is most evident among the fathers.
  • Parents who shared the child work equally while living together more often have shared residence than parents who did not share this work equally.
  • The parents with the lowest level of conflict more often have shared residence than parents with a higher level of interparental conflict.

Shared residence parents spend, on average, 50 percent of the time with their children and it is most common for the parents to be with the child one week at the time. Overall, shared-residence parents are more satisfied with the living arrangement and the amount of time spent together with the child than other parents.

According to the parents, almost nine out of ten children who were 12 years or older when their parents separated had had a say in who they were going to live with and the parents' choice of living arrangements. There were few if any differences in the children's co-determination across post-separation living arrangements.

Shared-residence children more often than other children from broken families have access to their childhood home. Seven out of ten children with shared residence have access to their childhood home because one of the parents still lives there, compared to half of the children who live permanently with one of the parents.

Most children have their own room in at least one of the parental homes. Having their own room in both parents' homes is, however, most widespread among the children with shared residence. Eight out of ten shared-residence children have two sets of rooms, compared with around six out of ten children who live permanently with one parent. Among children who were 12 years or older, nine out of ten shared-residential children had their own room in both parental homes.