The sharp rise in divorce rates in the past decades has led to the common practice of forming a new family through a new marriage or by living with a new partner. These new families often include the children of past relationships of both spouses/partners or of only one of them and frequently also include children born under the current conjugal relationship. These are called reconstituted families.
This article provides a brief sociography about Portuguese reconstituted families based on the Census 2001 results and on Demographic Statistics. Besides determining the extent of this phenomenon, the study will also identify some demographic and social characteristics of the persons belonging to this type of family.

key words: reconstituted families, married couples, cohabiting couples, marriages with children from previous relationships