1980 HUNGARIAN CENSUS OF POPULATION Summary data (1984)

VIII. THE CHANGE IN THE SIZE AND COMPOSITION OF HOUSEHOLDS AND FAMILIES

Since the size of the family depends first of all on the number of children living in the family, so the development of fertility has an effect on the decrease of the family size. Besides this the length of the marriage and the early leaving of the children (because of an early marriage or becoming active earner which is partly compensated by the prolongation of education) also have effect on the decrease of the family size. The number and proportion of families without children was raised considerably by the lengthened lifetime, which means that more older couples remain without children, partly because the children leave the family, and partly because of the growth in the number of marriages made in older age which yield no children. In 1949 the number of children per 100 families was 152, in 1960 126, in 1970 111, and in 1980 105. The average number of children for families with children was more than 2 in 1949 - per 100 families with children it was 208 -, in 1970 this indicator was 167 and in 1980 there were 162 children per 100 families with children. The number of children, the main determinant of the family size, was 3 million 183 thousand in 1980 by 446 thousand less than in 1949. The average family size and number of children by the family composition Number of family members Number of children Family composition per 100 families 1960 1970 1980 1960 1970 1980 Couple without children 200 200 200 Couple with children 387 371 367 187 171 167 Together 321 307 301 121 107 101 Father with children 242 240 241 142 140 141 Mother with children 2 59 250 239 159 150 139 Together 2 57 249 240 157 149 140 Total 312 301 294 126 111 105 In the past decade the number of families living without children grew further, at present in 35 percent of all families and in 40 percent of the couple-families there are no children. The proportion of the one child couples decreased and the proportion of families with three or more children also decreased. The proportion of couples with 2 children has been continuously increasing in the course of the past 31 years; the increase was most considerable in the past 10 years, which is connected partly with the 1973 population policy measures, partly with large number of women born in the fifties, and entering the fertile age in the seventies. Among the single parents families the number of onechild-families grew considerably. In 1949 half of these families lived with one child, while in 1980 the proportion of one-child-families among them exceeded 70 percent. The proportion of two-childrenfamilies did not change, that of three-and-more-children-families decreased further. The families by family types and by the number of children (perc Number of Couple with children Single parent with children children 1960 1970 1980 1960 1970 1980 1 46. 9 51. 0 48. 1 63. 6 66. 8 70. 2 2 33. 1 35. 5 41.4 23. 7 23.3 23.4 3 12. 0 8. 9 7.8 7. 8 6. 3 4. 5 4 4. 6 2.7 1.6 2. 9 2. 1 1.2 5 1.9 1.0 0. 6 1. 2 0. 8 0. 4 6 -X 1.5 0. 9 0. 5 0. 8 0. 7 0. 3 Total 100. 0 100. 0 100. 0 100. 0 100. 0 100. 0 The number of 1 5 year old and younger children living in families was 2 million 226 thousand in 1980, by 154 thousand more than 10 years earlier. There was a rise in the proportion of children aged 15 or younger among the children living in families. In 1970 this proportion was less than two thirds, in 1980 almost 70 percent. In more than half of all families, and in 30 percent of the families with children there are no 15 year old or younger children. This proportion has not changed in the past 10 years. 124