GLOBAL STUDY OF FAMILY
VALUES
An International Gallup Poll
FAMILY VALUES DIFFER SHARPLY
AROUND THE WORLD
No Consensus on the Morality of
Out-of-Wedlock Births
PRINCETON, N.J., November 7, 1997
- The Gallup Organization today reports that a poll it conducted
this year in sixteen countries on four continents finds people
a long way from sharing a global set of family values. In fact,
what is considered morally acceptable in some countries is widely
deemed immoral in others.
The issue generating the most varied reaction in this international
Gallup survey is the morality of unmarried couples having children.
Acceptance of this modern lifestyle trend ranges from 90% or more
in parts of Western Europe to under 15% in Singapore and India.
Evidence of major cultural differences in family values around
the globe is also revealed in the wide range of opinions recorded
about the ideal family size, and in gender preferences for children.
Looking at all of their opinions collectively, citizens of several
countries in Western Europe, particularly Germany, Great Britain
and Spain, emerge as the most liberal, or non-traditional in their
outlook toward children. In contrast such Asian nations as India
and Taiwan are extremely conservative. The United States fits
squarely in the middle, expressing a mixture of traditional and
non-traditional attitudes.
One sentiment which is generally shared across the globe is the
perceived importance of having children. A majority of adults
in all countries surveyed except Germany and the United States
say that having children is vital to their personal sense of fulfillment.
While family values concerning children tend to differ across
countries, Gallup finds that men and women within each country
generally subscribe to the same values. Greater variation is seen
along generational lines, but even these differences are small
in comparison with those across nations.
Out-of-Wedlock Births
The International Gallup Poll finds
substantial variation around the world in the percent of citizens
in the sixteen countries surveyed who condone having children
outside of marriage. The most liberal countries on this issue
-- with 90% or more of adults saying it is morally acceptable
-- are Germany, France and Iceland. At the same time, very high
percentages in countries such as India, Singapore and Taiwan say
it is not acceptable.
The United States stands out as the country most evenly divided
over the morality of out-of-wedlock births, with 47% saying it
is wrong and 50% saying it is not wrong. In fact, the U.S. is
the only country surveyed by Gallup in which there is not a clear
majority consensus on one side or the other.
There is minimal disagreement between men and women in each country
over the question of having children out of wedlock. In some countries
there are generational differences, as might be suspected, with
young adults (aged 18-34) expressing greater tolerance than older
adults (aged 55 and older). This is particularly true in the U.S.,
where a majority of respondents aged 55 and older say it is morally
wrong for an unmarried couple to have a baby, while a majority
of young adults say it is not.
Although less so than in the U.S., a similar generational disparity
is evident in Canada, Great Britain, and Spain. Less than 20%
of young adults in these nations consider it wrong, compared with
nearly half of adults aged 55 and older.
Less evidence of a difference in acceptance of out-of-wedlock
births by age exists in India or Singapore, where the vast majority
of adults of all ages disapprove of the practice. In Columbia,
Germany and France, on the other hand, acceptance is extremely
high throughout society, regardless of age.
Preference for Boys
When asked to say which gender they
would prefer if they could have just one child, a majority of
adults in half of the countries surveyed say that gender does
not matter. Among respondents for whom gender does matter, the
preference tends to be for a boy over a girl by a moderate margin.
This preference for a male child is particularly strong in Thailand
and India, where boys are favored over girls by double-digit margins
and the percentage of people saying they have no preference is
quite low. In Thailand, 44% would want a boy, 27% a girl -- yielding
a 17% preference for boys, with only 29% expressing no preference.
In India there is a 13 percentage point preference for a boy,
40% to 27%.
In the U.S. 42% of those surveyed have no preference, but among
those who do, boys are favored by a 12 point margin, 35% to 23%.
Two countries where a majority of adults have no preference whatsoever
regarding gender are Spain and Iceland. In both places, a majority
of people say they would not care whether their child is male
or female if they could only have one child, and among those who
do express an opinion, it is equally divided between having a
boy or a girl. Countries where only slight partiality for boys
is observed include Great Britain, Singapore and Mexico. Iceland
shows a slight preference for girls, although most adults in that
country say that gender does not matter.
Gender preference is the one question asked in the International
Gallup Poll on which men and women clearly differ. Men around
the world show a relatively solid preference for boys, while women
tend to have no preference or only a slight preference for boys.
Men in some of the less well-developed countries surveyed are
particularly partial to having boys, including Lithuania, Thailand,
Mexico, and Columbia. However, on a relative basis U.S. men are
also high on this measure, ranking fifth out of the sixteen countries.
While men have a solid preference for having male offspring, in
only a handful of the countries -- Spain, Lithuania, and Mexico
-- do women clearly prefer a girl rather than a boy.
Having Children is Highly Valued
A majority of adults in almost all
of the countries included in the survey -- Germany and the U.S.
being the exceptions -- say that having a child is necessary for
them to feel personally fulfilled in life. This sentiment is more
widespread in some countries, however, than in others. Approximately
nine out of ten adults in Hungary, India and Taiwan agree with
the statement that having children is necessary for fulfillment.
The number agreeing is closer to eight in ten in Iceland, Thailand,
Lithuania, and Singapore. Seven in ten feel this way in Guatemala,
France and Colombia, with agreement closer to 60% in Mexico, Spain,
Canada and Great Britain.
The two countries where less than a majority of residents say
having children is necessary for their personal fulfillment are
Germany and the U.S. This statement is agreed with by only 49%
of Germans and 46% of Americans.
In almost all of the countries surveyed, men and women are equally
likely to say that having a child is vital to their sense of personal
fulfillment. The exceptions are the U.S. and Colombia, where men
are about ten percentage points more likely than women to agree
that having a child has this level of importance.
Ideal Number of Children Is Greater
than the Replacement Rate
According to United Nations statistics,
the annual rate of world population growth peaked at about 2%
in the early 1960s and has since been gradually slowing. The latest
population figures indicate that the world's population is now
growing by about 81 million people per year and the annual rate
of growth has slowed to just under 1.5%. The U.N. cites desired
family size as one of the key factors in world population trends,
and partially credits a shrinking number of children desired by
women for the slowing in population growth.
The Gallup International Poll records a wide range of opinions
about the ideal family size. Even though most of the countries
included in this study are highly developed (and not therefore
the countries most associated with population growth), the preferred
number of children is higher than the 2.1 children per woman that
the Zero Population Growth organization estimates as the replacement
rate.
The preference for larger numbers of children is particularly
evident in Iceland, Guatemala and Taiwan , where the mean number
is close to 3. Also on the high side are the U.S., France, Singapore,
Mexico and Canada, where the mean number ranges from over 2.4
to 2.6.
In Thailand, Great Britain and Colombia, the average is slightly
lower, ranging from 2.2 to 2.4. Only in Germany, Spain and urban
India is the mean number close to the population replacement rate,
ranging from 2.0 to 2.1.
Although population control efforts often concentrate on the preferences
of women, the Gallup Poll finds that men and women within each
country tend to agree on the ideal number of children for a family
to have. To the extent that there are differences, such as in
France, Singapore, and Lithuania, women have a slightly greater
preference than men for larger families, defined as three or more
children.
U.S. Trends on Ideal Family Size
According to trends recorded by the
Gallup Poll in the United States, there have been dramatic changes
in attitudes about family size in the United States over the last
half century.
When preferred family size was first measured by Gallup in the
U.S. in 1936, two thirds of Americans thought that three or more
children were ideal, and the mean number of children preferred
was 3.6. Those preferences held steady for the next three decades,
through 1967. A poll conducted in 1973 recorded a substantial
change -- with preference for three or more children declining
to 51% and the mean number preferred dropping to 2.8. By 1980
the figures had dropped to 40% favoring three or more children,
with an average number of 2.5. U.S. opinion on this issue has
remained stable at this level since then.
Trends in U.S. preferences for family size are generally consistent
with Census statistics over the same time period. In 1961 the
actual fertility rate in the U.S. -- the number of children born
per woman -- was 3.4. That fell to 1.7 by 1980, and is estimated
at 2.1 for 1996.
Germans Rank First in Being Non-Traditional
Broadly speaking, the Asian countries
surveyed by Gallup in this study express the most traditional
views on the family value questions asked, while Western Europeans
and some industrialized nations hold the most non-traditional
views.
Taking these four major family-value issues together (out-of-wedlock
births; gender preferences; family size and the value placed on
children) adults in the Western European nations of Germany, Great
Britain and Spain tend to be consistently non-traditional in their
views. A high proportion of adults in these countries prefer small
families, have no gender preference for children, and are widely
accepting of out-of-wedlock births. Compared to other countries,
they are also among the least likely to say that having children
is vital to their sense of personal fulfillment. Germans express
the highest level of non-traditional views of any country in the
survey.
At the opposite end of the cultural spectrum are Taiwan, India,
Guatemala, Thailand, and Singapore, where most adults gave the
more traditional responses to three out of Gallup's four questions.
Adults in these countries indicate that having a child is vitally
important to them, they have a solid bias in favor of boys and,
compared to other countries, are much less accepting of out of
wedlock births. However, perhaps because of population control
efforts in developing nations, adults in Thailand, India and Singapore
prefer smaller families, and are therefore somewhat less traditional
in this regard.
The remaining seven countries give a greater mix of traditional
and non-traditional responses to the four separate questions posed
by Gallup. This middle group includes France, Iceland, Mexico,
the United States, Hungary, Columbia, Lithuania and Canada.
SURVEY METHODS
This International Gallup Poll on
Children was conducted in sixteen countries in Asia, Europe, North
America, and Latin America, between February and May of 1997.
The countries selected for inclusion were those in which The Gallup
Organization currently operates a wholly-owned subsidiary and/or
joint venture company, and where ongoing nation-wide public opinion
surveys (as opposed to market research polling) were in place
at the time of the study. These are Canada, Colombia, France,
Germany, Great Britain, Guatemala, Hungary, Iceland, India, Lithuania,
Mexico, Singapore, Spain, Taiwan, Thailand, and the United States.
Surveys in most of the countries are nationally representative,
with the exceptions of India, Colombia and Mexico where interviews
were restricted to urban areas.
Results from each country are based on samplings of the adult
population, typically 1000 or more interviews with those aged
18 and older, and the data for each country have an associated
sampling error of plus or minus three percentage points. More
information about the study is available upon request.
Do you think it is, or is not, morally wrong for a couple to have a baby if they are not married?
Wrong | Not wrong | |
India |
|
|
Singapore |
|
|
Taiwan |
|
|
United States |
|
|
Guatemala |
|
|
Thailand |
|
|
Mexico |
|
|
Canada |
|
|
Great Britain |
|
|
Spain |
|
|
Lithuania |
|
|
Hungary |
|
|
Colombia |
|
|
Germany |
|
|
France |
|
|
Iceland |
|
|
Note: "No opinion" omitted. |
What do you think
is the ideal number of children for a family to have?
|
| |
Iceland |
|
|
Guatemala |
|
|
Taiwan |
|
|
United States |
|
|
France |
|
|
Singapore |
|
|
Mexico |
|
|
Canada |
|
|
Lithuania |
|
|
Great Britain |
|
|
Thailand |
|
|
Hungary |
|
|
Colombia |
|
|
Germany |
|
|
Spain |
|
|
India |
|
|
Note: "No opinion" omitted. |
Suppose you could
only have one child. Would you prefer that it be a boy or a girl?
Boy |
Girl |
No opinion | |
Taiwan |
29% |
9 |
|
Thailand |
44% |
27 |
|
Hungary |
25% |
12 |
|
India |
40% |
27 |
|
United States |
35% |
23 |
|
Guatemala |
23% |
13 |
|
Canada |
26% |
16 |
|
France |
41% |
31 |
|
Singapore |
19% |
11 |
|
Colombia |
35% |
27 |
|
Mexico |
31% |
24 |
|
Great Britain |
31% |
26 |
|
Germany |
21% |
19 |
|
Lithuania |
33% |
34 |
|
Iceland |
12% |
16 |
|
Spain |
20% |
27 |
|
Note: "No opinion" omitted. |
For you personally,
do you think it is necessary or not necessary to have a child
at some point in your life in order to feel fulfilled?
Yes |
No | |
Hungary | 94% |
6 |
India | 93% |
6 |
Taiwan | 87% |
3 |
Iceland | 85% |
13 |
Thailand | 85% |
13 |
Lithuania | 82% |
10 |
Singapore | 81% |
7 |
Guatemala | 74% |
23 |
France | 73% |
26 |
Colombia | 72% |
26 |
Mexico | 61% |
38 |
Spain | 60% |
35 |
Canada | 59% |
37 |
Great Britain | 57% |
41 |
Germany | 49% |
45 |
United States | 46% |
51 |
Note: "No opinion" omitted. |
Copyright © 1998 The Gallup Organization