Abstract
This chapter presents the basic demographic characteristics of siblings, drawn from statistical surveys within the UK and EU, and birth registration statistics. There has been a paucity of information on siblings in national surveys, although this gap is being slowly remedied. The analyses presented include the average number of siblings the respondents had while growing up, and also in middle- and old- age. Comparisons are made between the respondent and their eldest sibling: the average age difference; and its variation by number of siblings and age of respondent. The profile of respondents’ childhood families by number of siblings and combinations of brothers and sisters is estimated, and how the profile has changed from the early twentieth century. Some social aspects are explored; when respondents are asked to rate which members of a wide group of hypothetical relatives and friends of an individual would constitute his or her quintessential family members, siblings rank high on the list—immediately after children and a spouse/partner—so that siblings are definitely recognized as part of the family. Using data from a number of countries, the responses as to who is the most significant person in the respondent’s network of friends and relatives—really the prime “confidante”—is analysed to see how often brothers and sisters are first mentioned. In general, sisters are first mentioned by sister respondents the most frequently of all possible brother/sister combinations, and at least four times as frequently as brothers being first mentioned by sister respondents, the least frequent combination.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
From the inscription on the tomb of the Duchess of Newcastle in Westminster Abbey, 1673.
- 2.
From ‘The Canticle of the Sun’, St Francis, 1224. (Other entities also give the epithets ‘brother’ and ‘sister’).
- 3.
Strictly, the data in Figs. 3.9 and 3.10 should have been plotted in histogram or equivalent form. They have been depicted in the form shown as it much more clearly shows the differences in averages/percentages for the different countries, as well as the differences by type of sibling combination for each country.
References
Grundy, E., Murphy, M., & Shelton, N. (1999). Looking beyond the household: Intergenerational perspectives on living kin and contacts with kin in Great Britain. Population Trends, 97, 19–27.
Haskey, J. (2005). Living arrangements in contemporary Britain: Having a partner who usually lives elsewhere and living apart together (LAT). Population Trends, 122, 35–45.
Haskey, J. (2010a). Measuring family and household variables. In: Bulmer, M. et al. (editors) Social measurement through social surveys—An applied approach. Farnham, Ashgate, 9–27.
Haskey, J. (2010b). Intestacy and surviving kin: Law Commission research. Family Law, 40, 964–972.
Kolk, M. (2015). The causal effect of an additional sibling on completed fertility: An estimation of intergenerational fertility correlations by looking at siblings of twins. Demographic Research, 32, 1409–1420.
Kolk, M. (2017). A life-course analysis of geographical distance to siblings, parents, and grandparents in Sweden. Population, Space and Place, 23(3), e2020.
Monk, D. & Macvarish, J. (2018). Siblings, contact and the law: An overlooked relationship. Nuffield Foundation. London: Birkbeck.
Murphy, M. (2008). Variations in kinship networks across geographic and social space. Population and Development Review, 34(1), 19–49.
Tanskanen, A.O., Danielsbacka, M., & Rotkirch, A. (2016a). More unintended injuries in half sibling than full sibling households in the UK. Finnish Yearbook of Population Research, (51), 177–182.
Tanskanen, A.O., Danielsbacka, M., Jokela, M., David-Barratt, T., & Rotkirch, A. (2016b). Diluted competition? Conflicts between full- and half-siblings in two adult generations. Frontiers in Sociology (1), Article: 6.
Acknowledgements
Thanks are due to the Department of Social Policy and Intervention, University of Oxford, which provided a range of facilities, and to the Bodleian Library for providing access to relevant publications. Any errors remain the responsibility of the author, and, similarly, any opinions expressed are those of the author alone. Thanks are also due to the following organisations which supplied the survey data analysed in this chapter: Office for National Statistics, Social Survey Division. (2001). ONS Omnibus Survey, January 1999. [data collection]. UK Data Service. SN: 4221, http://doi.org/10.5255/UKDA-SN-4221-1 (and also February 1999 Omnibus Survey data.) English Longitudinal Study of Ageing: Wave 7, 2015, reference: Marmot, M., Oldfield, Z., Clemens, S., Blake, M., Phelps, A., Nazroo, J., Steptoe, A., Rogers, N., Banks, J., Oskala, A. (2017). English Longitudinal Study of Ageing: Waves 0-7, 1998–2015. [data collection]. 27th Edition. UK Data Service. SN: 5050, http://doi.org/10.5255/UKDA-SN-5050-14. SHARE Wave 6 (DOI, https://doi.org/10.6103/share.w6.700, see Börsch-Supan et al. (2013) for methodological details. The SHARE data collection was funded by the European Commission, DG Employment, Social Affairs & Inclusion, the German Ministry of Education and Research, the Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Science, the U.S. National Institute on Aging, and from various national funding sources.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2021 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Haskey, J.C. (2021). Brothers and Sisters: A Social and Demographic Perspective. In: Buchanan, A., Rotkirch, A. (eds) Brothers and Sisters. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-55985-4_3
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-55985-4_3
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-55984-7
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-55985-4
eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)