1980 HUNGARIAN CENSUS OF POPULATION Summary data (1984)

IX. THE DEVELOPMENT OF FERTILITY

Among the 20-29 aged women - who started their reproductive period after the introduction of different positive population policy measures - the proportion of childless decreased almost by 60 percent, the proportion of those with one child shows a small (10 percent), the proportion of those with two children shows more than twofold and the proportion of those having three children shows an 18 percent increase. The proportion of women rearing four or more children decreased by 50 percent. The decrease in the proportion of dependant childless women was less (32 percent) than of earners, the proportion of women with one child is considerable (40 percent), but the proportions of women having two, three or four or more children are much higher (57, 54 and 56 percent) than 30 years earlier. Since these women are young at the middle of the reproductive period, we hope that they will utilize the advantages that our population policies provide and their numbers of children will develop even more favourably. The number of children distribution of 30-39 aged married earner women definitely shows that more than half of the women rear only two children (their proportion grew more than twofold in the past 30 years), the proportion of women rearing three children has been stagnating (12 percent) and the proportion of married women having four or more children is one third of that 30 years ago. The number of children distribution of similar aged dependant women seems somewhat more favourable, here the proportion of women with two children is also the most considerable (45 percent), but the proportion of those with three children increased as well (by 13 percent) and the decrease in the proportion of those with four or more children was more moderate (32 percent). The number of children distribution of 40-49 and 50-59 aged married women developed similarly both for earners and dependants to that of the younger 30-39 aged women, but the proportion of mothers with three children increased to lesser extent. Among the 60 and older aged the high proportion of those with two children is not characteristic, they represent only one fourth of both earners and dependants, but the proportion of women with four or more children is higher (16 percent and 2 5 percent) than in any younger age group. At the same time the proportion of childless among the over 60 aged women is almost the same both for earners (20 percent) and for dependants (13 percent) as 30 years ago, which is a fairly high proportion in terms of present birth habits. The development of the average number of children of earner and dependant married women was different in the various social strata over the decades. The process of re stratification influenced the level of fertility. The decrease in the proportion of agricultural manuals meant that the weight of the most fertile stratum was decreasing, and so the weight of less fertile strata was incressing. If we standardized the 1920 agricultural (the women or her supporter is employed in agriculture) - non-agricultural proportions, the number of children in 1980 per 100 married women would be by 15 percent higher (so there would be 205 instead of 179 children per 100 women). The fertility of the agricultural manual stratum - suggested by many decades' experiences - considerably exceeds the fertility of other strata. This high fertility, which comes from the historically formed peasant way of life, resulted that even in 1960 the fertility aged agricultural manual married women had averagely more than two children, while the average number of children of the non-agricultural manuals (156) and the nonmanuals (121) was well below two. Since 1920 the average number of children per 100 manual married women decreased from 272 to 192. Within the manuals the decrease in the average number of children of agricultural and nonagricultural women was to almost the same extent (21 percent and 27 percent respectively). (We have to mention that in the 1920 indicator for non-agricultural manuals we took into account all earners, so also inactive earners the number of which was presumably insignificant in this period.) The agricultural - non-agricultural composition of manuals changed considerably in the past 60 - especially in the past 40 years - as a result of the restructuring of the economy, and so affected strongly the fertility of women. The fertility of agricultural manual married women decreased by 13 percent until 1960, it decreased by 3 percent in the sixties and by 6 percent in the seventies. So the fertility of agricultural manual married women has been continuous decreasing. The decrease in the fertility of non-agricultural manual married women was 34 percent until 1960, but since then there has been a small but continuous increase (6 and 5 percent respectively). The decrease in the fertility of nonmanual married women was also considerable (19 percent), but in the past 20 years - similarly to the non-agricultural manuals - there has been an improvement in the fertility of this group. The fertility of the nonmanual married women was much lower in 1920 than the fertility of the manuals (176 and 272 per 100 married women), and their fertility decreased considerably (by 31 percent) until 1960. Between 1960 and 1970 there was some (6 percent) improvement, and between 1970 and 1980 there was a more considerable (12 percent) increase. 134