The cultural surrender of the European middle class: part 3
Changes over time
Changes over time
The European Social Survey doesn’t go back far enough to track long run changes. For this I use the European Values Survey (EVS). The EVS starts in 1981, which isn’t ideal since it misses changes from the 1960s, but it does give us a whole generation. To make comparisons more straightforward, I’ll only use countries that were in all waves of the survey: Denmark, France, Germany, Great Britain, Iceland, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, and Sweden.
Marriage
The EVS records whether someone’s income is in the bottom, middle, or top third of their country. For education, I use whether someone finished education at 21 or above.
The proportion of people with children who are unmarried has risen steeply across all groups. Poor and less educated people show a larger rise in absolute terms.
The proportion with children who have never married has also risen steeply. Here, rich and poor people show the same rates, and educated people show higher rates.
If we look at attitudes, more people believe marriage is outdated. This is more common among poor and less educated people, but trends are broadly parallel.
Fewer people believe a child needs a home with both parents. Educated people are less likely to agree.
