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IF FAMILY is the bedrock of our society, then inevitably a survey of its evolution tells us as much about the nature of our wider society as it does the world inside the home. Yesterday’s fascinating, wide-ranging ESRI study Family Figures: Family dynamics and family types in Ireland 1986-2006does precisely that.

In the 20-year span of the study Ireland has seen a qualitative transformation of the role of women at work, the breaking of the hold of traditional church teaching on young people, the breaking of bonds between generations, attitudes to sex and sexuality transformed, and the growth of a substantial non-indigenous population. Such trends are reflected, for example, in the fourfold increase in cohabitation – at 25 twice as many people are cohabiting as are married – in the doubling of lone-parenting, and in the massive growth of what we would regard as “non-standard” families. The commitment of women to work means children are being born later, into smaller families.