The latest issue of Insee Première (October 2009) returned in a few pages on the numbers of stepfamilies. Selected excerpts…
In 2006, 580000 families are stepfamilies in France, 7.7% of families with at least one minor child.
In blended families, the woman is often older than the man: this is the case one out of three times in reconstituted families, compared to one out of five in the traditional families.
In stepfamilies, the children of the new union have an age gap important with their half-brothers and half-sisters (seven years in average).
The parents of a blended family have degrees less than the parents of traditional family. 20% of mothers in stepfamily have a degree equal to or higher than a level bac+2, compared to 32% of the mothers of the traditional family. Similarly, 19% of fathers in stepfamilies have a diploma of level bac+2 or more, while 27% of fathers in traditional family, are in this case.