1980 HUNGARIAN CENSUS OF POPULATION Summary data (1984)

IX. THE DEVELOPMENT OF FERTILITY

The fertility of married women by the term of the marriage The number of children per 100 married women in Year Total 0-4 5-9 10-14 15-19 20-29 30-X years term marriage 1930 327 93 208 282 352 499 1949 259 79 173 229 273 319 427 1960 232 99 173 214 246 280 357 1970 205 78 152 186 201 231 287 1980 189 91 169 190 193 198 240 The natural tendency that the growth in the term of the marriage and in the age affect fertility in a positive way is still valid, but the extent of the rise decreased considerably. The indicators for the past two decades reflect that practice that women give birth to the wanted children in the first period of their marriage and the number of children hardly changes later on. The distribution of married women by the number of children shows in every age group and in every category of the marriage term, that in the past 50 years there was a decrease in the proportion of the childless, an increase in the proportion of those having one child or two children, and that the proportion of those with three children decreased to a lesser extent and the proportion of mother having four or more children decreased to a larger extent. According to the data for the past two decades besides the main determinants of fertility - which are first of all biological factors (the age of the women), an social-moral factors (marriage) - other factors, like: the stability of the marriage, the age of the husband, highest education - do not have considerable impact on fertility. In 1960 there were 234 children per 100 women who made one marriage, contrary to the 218 value of the indicator for women who made more marriages. The two respective rates were 205 and 203 in 1970, while in 1980 the indicator was lower for women who made one marriage (188 and 198 respectively). The same tendency holds for the distribution by the number of children, because - contrary to the data for 1960 - today a once made and maintained marriage is not more fertile than a marriage which ended in divórce and the next marriage together. According to marriage customs which came about in the course of centuries, in our country that marriage is considered ideal where the husband is by 4-5 years older than his wife. The comparison of the age of the married partners at the times of the past three censuses show the change in the marriage customs, namely the decrease in the age difference between the partners. In 1960 and in 1970 81. 3 percent of the marriages were traditional in the sense that the husband was older, the same proportion was 80. 5 percent in 1980. At the same time there is a gradual rise in the proportion of couples where the partners are of the same age - 6.3, 6.7, 7.3 percents, which also indicates the change in the marriage customs. The proportion of couples where the husband is younger than his wife is about 12 percent according to all three censuses. The couples' age composition distribution (percentage) All The wife is younger by The husband and wife are same The wife is older by Year married 15-X 10-14 5-9 1-4 toThe husband and wife are same to1-4 5-9 10-X women years gether aged gether years 1960 100.0 2.8 8.4 32.2 37.9 81.3 6.3 12.4 9.2 2.5 0.7 1970 100. 0 2. 3 7.5 31.5 40.0 81. 3 6. 7 12.0 9.1 2.3 0.6 1980 100.0 1.8 6.2 29. 6 42.9 80.5 7.3 12.2 9.5 2.1 0.6 The age difference between the partners has an effect on the development of fertility. It is a general tendency that those marriages are most fertile where the husband is somewhat older than his wife. The fertility of couples of such composition exceeded by 2-7 percent the average fertility of female generations in 1960. The fertility exceeded the average most in the 25-39 age group (by more than 7 percent). At the bottom and at the upper limit of reproductive age the value of the indicator was around the average. This tendency altered by 1980 inasmuch as the difference in the fertility between the same-aged-couples and the older-husband-couples decreased, in fact at the upper limit of reproductive age the fertility of the same-aged-couples exceeds that of the older-husband-couples (the number of children per 100 women isl201 and 197 respectively). 130