Research has proven that the best place for children to grow up well is within a marriage of the mother and the father. However, the situation of marriage as the best place to have children in the EU is disastrous.

Estonia (58 per cent), Sweden (55 per cent), Denmark (45 per cent), Latvia (45 per cent), France (45 per cent), Slovenia (44 per cent), The United Kingdom (42 per cent) and Finland (41 per cent) are the eight EU countries that qualify for having abandoned marriage altogether as the best setting for having children: more then 40 per cent of live births of children in these countries take place outside marriage.

In Europe, only Malta (19.1 per cent); Poland (17.2 per cent); Italy (14.9 per cent); Greece (4.9 per cent) and Cyprus (3.3 per cent) still qualify as the EU countries where marriage is the best setting for having children and is still a strong institution: in these countries less then 20 per cent of live births of children takes place outside marriage