Family law related social services 2023

The number of family law related agreements varies considerably by wellbeing services county.

During 2023, child support agreements were confirmed for 3.9 per cent of children. Agreements were confirmed most in Kymenlaakso, where they were confirmed for 6.5 per cent of children, and least in West Uusimaa, where the percentage was 2.5.

The number of family law related agreements halved between 2018 and 2023. There has been a particularly strong decline in the number of child custody agreements because joint custody of a child does not currently require a separate child custody agreement if parenthood has already been acknowledged during pregnancy. No single clear reason can be pointed out for the reduction in the number of agreements on child support and right of access. The commonness of agreements on alternating residence has remained at the same level as in previous years.

Paternity is still always established separately if the parents of the child that will be born are not married. In 2023, paternity was established by acknowledgement for 22,667 children. In a majority of cases, paternity was acknowledged before the child was born, and acknowledgements after the birth of the child accounted for only 11 per cent of the cases.

Only agreements confirmed by social services are included in the statistics – parents can also agree on the custody and residence of their children and access to the children between themselves.

The data in the statistics are collected from the wellbeing services counties, the Digital and Population Data Services Agency, the Legal Register Centre and THL's Forensic Chemistry Unit.

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Background information

Description of statistics

Statistics include numerical data on agreements regarding child custody, maintenance of the child, residence and right of access as well as determination and confirming of parenthood.

Welfare areas submit information on their own activities. The data is supplemented with data from the Digital and Population Data Agency, the Forensic Chemistry Unit of the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare and the Legal Register Centre.

The statistics are published annually in April. The statistics have been published since 1993.