INTRODUCTION

The prevailing family structure in Mediterranean Europe indicates that most young adults live with their parents. In Italy, Portugal, Greece, and Spain, the share of eighteen- to thirty-three-year-olds living at home is between 70 and 80 percent. In the same Mediterranean countries, age at marriage increased and fertility declined in the last thirty years. This peculiar demographic behavior contrasts sharply with non-Mediterranean Europe, the United States, and Canada, where the shares of people living at home range from 10 to 35 percent and fertility did not decline so dramatically during the same period.

The main thesis of this chapter is that this peculiar pattern in Southern European countries could have been caused by differences in cultural norms, as pointed out by historical analysis as well as sociological evidence. According to sociologists, family ties exhibit considerable differences between Northern and Southern European countries. The latter are grouped together as “strong-family-ties countries” and contrast with the “weak-family-ties countries” of Northern Europe and North America (Reher 1998: 206): “The strength or weakness refers to cultural patterns of family loyalties, allegiances, and authority but also to demographic patterns of coresidence with adult children and older family members and to organizing support for the latter.” This chapter presents a cultural interpretation to explain differences in living arrangements, marriage behavior, and fertility in Western Europe. I argue that, indeed, cultural differences in the strength of family ties could help to explain the demographic trends observed in Southern Europe.