Tomas Sobotka
Laurent Toulemon

http://www.demographic-research.org/volumes/vol19/6/

doi:10.4054/DemRes.2008.19.6

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Abstract
Following the era of the ‘golden age of marriage’ and the baby boom in the 1950s and 1960s, marriage has declined in importance, and its role as the main institution on which family relations are built has been eroded across Europe. Union formation most often takes place without a marriage. Family and living arrangements are currently heterogeneous across Europe, but all countries seem to be making the same shifts: towards fewer people living together as a couple, especially in marriage; an increased number of unmarried couples; more children born outside marriage; and fewer children living with their two parents. The relationship between these changing living arrangements, especially the decline of marriage, on the one hand, and the overall level of fertility, on the other, is not straightforward. In most countries, marriage rates and fertility declined simultaneously. However, the aggregate relationship between marriage and fertility indices has moved from negative (fewer marriages imply fewer births) to positive (fewer marriages imply more births). Thus, the decline of marriage, which is a part of the second demographic transition (see Overview Chapter 6), cannot be considered an important cause of the current low fertility level in many European countries. On the contrary, in European countries where the decline of marriage has been less pronounced, fertility levels are currently lower than in countries where new living arrangements have become most common.

Author's affiliation
Tomas Sobotka
Vienna Institute of Demography, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Austria
Laurent Toulemon
Institut national d´études démographiques (INED), France

Keywords
childbearing, Europe, family, fertility

Related links

You will find all publications in this Special Collection “Childbearing Trends and Policies in Europe” at http://www.demographic-research.org/special/7/

Word count (Main text)
15046

Other articles by the same author/authors (in Demographic Research)

	[23-1] Multi-residence in France and Australia: Why count them? What is at stake? Double counting and actual family situations
	[19-16] France: High and stable fertility
	[19-14] Czech Republic: A rapid transformation of fertility and family behaviour after the collapse of state socialism
	[19-12] Austria: Persistent low fertility since the mid-1980s
	[19-9] Overview Chapter 7: The rising importance of migrants for childbearing in Europe
	[19-8] Overview Chapter 6: The diverse faces of the Second Demographic Transition in Europe
	[19-3] Overview Chapter 1: Fertility in Europe: Diverse, delayed and below replacement
	[19-2] Summary and general conclusions: Childbearing Trends and Policies in Europe
	[8-6] Tempo-quantum and period-cohort interplay in fertility changes in Europe: Evidence from the Czech Republic, Italy, the Netherlands and Sweden

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