1980 HUNGARIAN CENSUS OF POPULATION Summary data (1984)

IX. THE DEVELOPMENT OF FERTILITY

In the following we show the main characteristics of the fertility of married women. The fall in the average number of children definitely comes from the decrease in the number of women giving birth to four or more children. According to the 1920 data, at that time more than 40percent of the married women gave birth to four or more children. On the contrary the respective proportion is less than 10 percent 60 years latter. In correspondence with this, in the distribution by the number of children there is gradual increase in the proportion of women having 2 children, at present they constitute the decisive proportion (in 1980 almost 40 percent). In recent decades the ideal of smaller family has become general, the ideal number of children is two and three children is considered too many. It is an unfavourable new practice that part of the couples are satisfied with one child. Although in the past decade there was a slight decrease in the proportion of women having one child, but if we look back for a longer period of time their proportion shows increasing tendency. It is a favourable phenomenon that the proportion of married women without children was never as low as it is today. The proportion of married women without children was highest in 1949 (18 percent), and since then there is a gradual decrease, in 1980 their proportion among all married women was only 12 percent. The distribution of married women by the number of children (percentage) 0 1 2 3 4-X Year Total Year Total children 1920 100.0 17.9 16.6 12.4 10.9 42.2 1930 100.0 17.1 16.9 16.5 12.8 36.7 1949 100.0 18.3 22.3 20.7 13.1 25.6 1960 100.0 15.1 25.4 25.8 13.9 19.8 1970 100.0 13.7 28.7 30.5 13.1 14.0 1980 100.0 11.9 27.9 39.1 12.3 8.8 The determinant factors for the number of children - besides health and biological faculties are the age of the woman and the length of the marriage, the age of the husband also has influence. The available data reflect the effects of these factors. A considerable decrease can be observed in the fertility of married women in almost every - except the young - age group. In the past three decades the average number of children of those under 30 was rising - we do not take into account the fall in 1970 -, but that of those over 30 was decreasing at a high rate. Within the fertility age, the growth in the fertility of those under 24, the stagnating fertility of the 2 5-29 aged women, and the decreasing fertility of the older aged, all refer to that - besides the decreasing fertility - the birth habits are changing. The period in which women give birth to their child or children is shrinking, and in general women do not incline to have more than two children. At the beginning of the century only slightly more than 2 5 percent of the women giving birth were 20-24 aged, in the forties this age group represented one third; and since the second part of the sixties their proportion exceeds 40 percent. Further those at the beginning of the century one third of the women giving birth were 30-39 aged and 6 percent of them were older than 40; at present the respective proportions are 15 percent and 1 percent. If we compare the 1980 data with the data for 10 years earlier, we find that in the age groups below 30 there are higher live birth rates. It is probable that the spread of child-care-allowance and favourable measures on housing and other government rulings have positive contribution to this. The development of the fertility of married women by age groups Year 15-19 20-24 25-29 30-39 40-49 15-49 50-59 60-X Year number of children per 100 women of the respective age 1930 46 112 194 285 409 271 490 548 1949 45 93 159 238 298 219 333 429 1960 43 98 161 219 259 198 290 344 1970 44 90 145 195 226 179 248 280 1980 59 106 158 191 200 172 214 236 The attitude that the ideal number of children is two or maximum three holds stronge r among women in the younger age groups than among older women, since they are the children of women who 128