1980 HUNGARIAN CENSUS OF POPULATION Summary data (1984)

IV. THE CHANGE IN THE POPULATION'S DEMOGRAPHIC AND EDUCATIONAL CHARAC-TERISTICS

MARITAL STATUS The 63-64 percent proportion of married observed at the end of the last century showed decreasing tendency in the course of the 20th century and only in recent decades was there a gradual rise in this proportion. The extent of this rise was considerable in the fifties, when in an 11 years period parallel to 7. 5 percent growth in the number of the 15 years and older population, the number of married grew by 18 percent. The rate of the divorced was rising at a slow pace since the beginning of the century, the accelerating of the pace can be observed only since 1949. During the past twenty years the composition of the 15 years and older population by marital status was altered by the change of the age structure to a smaller extent, and by the diverging development in the number of marriages, divorces, widowings to a greater extent. The decrease in the proportion of the never married was accompanied by the rise in the proportion of the married, the widowed and first of all the divorced. The 15 years and older population by marital status and sex (percentage) Marital status Men Women Increase or decrease, 1970-1979 1960 197 0 1980 1960 1970 1980 Men Women Unmarried 23.7 24.7 22. 0 17.3 17. 2 13. 8 -8.7 -17.7 Married 71. 5 69. 9 70. 8 64. 4 63. 8 64. 3 3. 8 3.7 Widowed 3. 4 3.2 3. 5 15.7 15. 2 16. 3 12.7 10. 3 Divorced 1.4 2.2 3.7 2. 6 3. 8 5. 6 71.7 53. 2 Total 100. 0 100. 0 100. 0 100. 0 100. 0 100. 0 2. 6 2.9 The high increase in the proportion of divorced is an alarming phenomenon, in other words, the tendency of growing divorce rate which started in 1949, went on. The number of divorced between 1970 and 1979 rose by 150 percent both in the case of men and in the case of women. It occurs for the first time that the proportion of divorced men exceeds the growing proportion of widowed women, among the women there are more widowed than unmarried. 2 5 percent of the marriages made in 1960 ended in divorce, 30 percent of the marriages made in 1970 ended in divorce, this indicates the growing frequency of divorces. There are approximately 28 000 divorces in a year, both the number of divorces per 1 000 inhabitants and per 1 000 marriages reflect the growing basic tendency of the phenomenon. The divorces are most frequent in the 20-24 age group, and they decrease by age. 36 percent of the divorces happen in the first four years of the marriages, the longer the time-span of the marriage the more stable is the marriage. The number and rate of those who divorced more than once have been increasing. In the course of the past two decades the number of those men who divorced more than once grew threefold, the number of such women grew three and a half-fold. The decrease in the number and by relative weight of the unmarried come from the decrease in the proportion of the 15-19 age group, the increase in the proportion of the widowed comes from the increasing proportion of the 7 5-X age group. Since the change in the composition by marital status is caused partly by the change in the age distribution, the general direction of the changes do not hold of every age group: despite the rising proportion of the widowed in both sexes, in the case of men older than 65 and in the case of women older than 45 a decrease can be observed; the general decrease in the proportion of the unmarried do not hold of men between 25 and 54 or older than 70, and of women between 25 and 39 or older than 80. The altered tendency of the marriage development is characterized by the expansion of marriage age: among those who get married there is a rise in both the proportion of the young and the proportion of the old. The proportion of those who get married in the age 20-24 rose in both sexes in comparison to 1970 (the proportion of men rose from 32 percent to 35 percent, the proportion of women from 65 percent to 68 percent). 77