“Largest-large” families in Italy: what do we know about them?

From 1961 in Italy the average number of individuals per household decreased from 3.6 to 2.4 in 2011 and to 2.2 in 2022, and the proportion of households with six or more members or more from 14.4% to 1.4% and 1.2% respectively. Large families, particular those with four or more children, are often associated with poverty, but, given their rarity, they are extremely difficult to study. They are essentially unknown, especially in contexts of very low fertility, such as Italy. We aim to characterize families with four or more children (largest-large families) and to identify the socio-demographic factors that distinguish them from families with one or two children (small families) which represent the prevailing model. To do this, we apply multivariate logistic models to microdata from the 2011 Italian Population and Housing Census. This is the last Census conducted in Italy on universal population basis. Sample surveys are usually not large enough to enable in-depth analyses of the processes underlying the formation of this type of families. The census source also allows analyses to be conducted separately for the native and non-native populations. Results suggest a socio-economic polarization of largest-large families and a negative association with women’s education among both native and non-native populations. Among Italian couples only, re-partnering is a predictor of having a largest-large family and couples in which the male partner is self-employed are more likely to have four or more children than those with employed men. Regional cultural and institutional differences also play a non-negligible role.