Fifteen years after the fall of state socialism, the demographic picture of Eastern Europe is remarkably changed: an accelerated decline of fertility and, in some cases, a high rate of out migration, made several of these countries to record a population decline. On one hand, younger generations tend to delay marriage, postpone having children, have high rates of divorce and, as a result, an increasing percentage of the children are born or spend a significant part of their life outside a two-parent family. One the other hand, these societies are no longer homogeneous from a demographic point of view and various groups (characterized either by ethnicity, education, type of employment, level of income) tend to get a distinct demographic profile and have different trajectories than others.

In this project we focus on Hungary and analyze data from the Gender and Generations Survey (first wave), female sub sample. We are not only interested in understanding what are the main factors affecting the first union formation patterns (cohabitation versus marriage) and how these patterns change with different cohorts, but also what is the meaning of cohabitation in Hungary: an alternative for being single or an alternative to marriage. The importance of this question rests in the possibility of assessing future trends and making long-term population projections.

Project outcomes:

Poster presentation at the 2007 PAA meeting (March 29-31, 2007, New York, NY):
Cristina Bradatan and László J. Kulcsár: "Between cohabitation and marriage: First union formation in Hungary"
Download poster here

Another poster was also presented at the at the European Population Conference, Barcelona, Spain, July 9-12, 2008.

Academic article published: Cristina Bradatan and László J. Kulcsár (2008) "Choosing between marriage and cohabitation: Women first union patterns in Hungary" Journal of Comparative Family Studies 39, pp. 491-507.