One in five children in Copenhagen are only children

About one in five children in the Copenhagen area are only children, compared with one in eight nationwide, according to figures from Statistics Denmark.

A leading researcher attributes the disparity to the capital’s housing market. Many families start in Copenhagen but move away as they grow, seeking lower prices and more space, said Laust Hvas Mortensen, research professor at the Rockwool Foundation.

“People want to live where there’s room for more than one child, so we see families with a single child relocating when they plan to have another,” he said.

Suburban municipalities such as Høje-Taastrup, Glostrup, and Brøndby also have higher-than-average rates of only children, though not as high as Copenhagen and Frederiksberg.

Nationally, the number of only children has risen by 10 percent since 2010, the data show.