1980 HUNGARIAN CENSUS OF POPULATION Summary data (1984)

IX. THE DEVELOPMENT OF FERTILITY

nomic activity of women. The decrease in fertility is a general phenomenon the underlying reason of which should be looked for in attitudes and way of life, the active earner or dependánt status is only a secondary factor. The change in the past 60 years allows the comparison of two 30 years periods. The data clearly show that the crucial decrease in fertility took place in the first 30 years, when the number of children per 100 married women decreased by 102 for both earners and dependants, (40 percent decrease in the case of earners and 27 percent decrease in the case of dependants). This period - from the end of the first World War to the and of the second World War - defined the extent of the decrease in fertility. The last 30 years - which can be traced by decades - brought a 6 percent increase in the case of earners and 11 percent decrease in the case of dependants. The changes from decade to decade - which indicate the negative and positive effects of earlier mentioned measures - are conflicting for earners. In the first 10 years (1949-1960) there was 12 percent increase for earners, in the second 10 years (1960-1970) there was a 7 percent decrease, then in the last 10 years (1970-1980) there was again a very slight (1.2 percent) increase. Among the dependants there was a moderate but continuous increase in the past 30 years (5, 2, 5 percent respectively). If the earner-dependent proportion had not changed in the past 60 years - standardizing the 1920 distribution - the number of children would be 236 per 100 married women, which would mean a 25 percent fertility excess for all women. If the activity distribution were the same in 1980 as in 1949 the rise would not change. Among married women in their reproductive age the value of the indicator for earners and dependants was getting close gradually at a slow pace in the past decades. This shows that the inclination of earner women to rear children increased contrary to dependent women whose average number of children slightly decreased in the past 3 decades. It is characteristic for the formation of these proportions, that in 1949 the number of children were 141 for 100 married earner women in their reproductive age 234 for dependent women and 219 for all women. At this time the proportion of earner women was 17 percent among married women in their reproductive age so the level of fertility was determined by the fertility of dependent women who constituted the vast majority. In 1980 the number of children per 100 married earner women in their reproductive age was 164, and 230 for dependent women, for all women there were 172 live birth children. This means that today the fertility level of married women in their reproductive age is much closer to the fertility level of earner women, so the fertility of women is determined fundamentally by the fertility of this stratum. Within the reproductive age, the average number of children of 40-49 aged married women - which represent completed fertility - was still fairly high in 1949. A married women of this age gave birth to three children as average, but the number of children of the same aged earner women was less than two. The temporary rise in the completed fertility of earner married women was followed by a decrease after 1960. In 1980 there were 189 live birth children per 100 earner 40-49 aged married women. This means that a married women in the course of the fertile period of her life gives birth to 2 live birth children as average, contrary to earlier generations when in the fertile period three children were born as average. The fertility of married women by economic activity The number of children per 100 married women Year Earner Dependent 15-49 aged 50-X aged Earner Dependent earner dependent earner dependent 1920 266 378 _ _ _ 1949 164 276 141 234 271 381 1960 184 263 166 223 250 334 197 0 172 258 160 226 220 292 1980 174 246 164 230 203 256 The significance of the inclination of earner women to rear children increased considerably in the past decades, since their weight among married women strongly increased (from 15 percent to 80 percent), which obviously means that today earner women determine the fertility of the married women. If we examine the fertility of married earner women in reproductive age by age groups in the past 30 years we find that, the fertility of the very young (15-19 aged) grew twofold (from 26 to 54 132