The Statistical Yearbook of Norway 2011 provides statistical information about the Norwegian society on a range of fields. Many of the statistics are disaggregated by sex.

The number of marriages decreased slightly from 2009 to 2010, but still the number of marriages the last years has not been as high since the 1970s.

Among the country's 3.5 million persons aged 18 and above, 60 per cent lived as couples. Couples includes in this context persons who are married, living as registered partners or as cohabitants and were registered as living in the same dwelling.

Whereas women spend almost four hours on household work a day, this figure is two hours and forty minutes for men.

The post-war period was the great era of the nuclear family. More people got married and the proportion of one-person households decreased slightly.

By the end of 2008 there were 261 900 children in kindergartens, 12 400 more than in 2007. 87.2 per cent of all children between 1 and 5 years had a place in a kindergarten.

The time women use on house work per day has declined by about 2 hours between 1971 and 2000. For men the average time spent on house work has increased by about half an hour in this period. This is due to the fact that more men are taking part in this kind of work than before. In total, the time used on house work has declined considerably in the last 30 years. The percentage of men doing house work has increased in all age groups.

The long-term trend with increasing number of small households continues. In Norway slight more than 800 000 persons lived alone on 1 January 2007 which is 17 per cent of the population. 59 per cent of the population lives as couples - either persons who are married, living as registered partners or as cohabitants.

In 2008 60 500 children were born in Norway. The total fertility rate (TFR) was 1.96 children per woman, the highest since 1975.

The earmarked part of the parental leave (father's quota), now up to six weeks, was taken by around 87 per cent of fathers who are entitled to such leave. However, almost 40 per cent are not entitled to such leave, which means that in total only around 50 per cent of fathers take paternal leave.

The cash benefit arrangement is a cash grant that is offered to parents of children between 1 and 3 years of age, who do not or only partly use the state-supported kindergartens or day care services. 92 per cent of the 45 528 recipients of cash benefits for childcare in 2007 were women. See also the Cash Benefit Act.

In many families with children, kindergarten is the preferred child-care option.