Does religious practice influence family behaviours?

Abstract

According to the Étude des relations familiales et intergénérationnelles survey conducted in 2006 by INED and INSEE, 80 % of people in France aged 18-79 report being Catholic (by choice of birth), 5% Muslim, 2 % Protestant, 2% a different religion and 11% say they have no religion. But this distribution varies considerably by age: the youngest cohorts less often report a religious affiliation, and when they do, they attend religious services less regularly than their elders.
The more frequent attenders, now a small minority, remain more strongly attached to marriage and less often experience several successive unions. They also have more children: among women ever in union born in 1960, more frequent attenders have 0.6 children more than the others. Women practising a religion other than Catholicism, notably Muslim women,are not responsible for the whole of this difference, since the more frequently practising Catholics have 0.5 more children than the orthers.