1980 HUNGARIAN CENSUS OF POPULATION Summary data (1984)

IX. THE DEVELOPMENT OF FERTILITY

The distribution and the average number of children of 15-49 aged married women by flat size Number of rooms Distribution of married women Number of children per 100 married women Number of rooms 197 0 1980 1970 1980 1 35. 5 15. 3 185 172 2 50. 4 50.2 178 170 3 -X 14. 1 34. 5 167 176 Total 100. 0 100. 0 179 172 This table reflects well the relation between the average number of children and the size of the flat of married women. The housing conditions of married women in reproductive age with three or more children improved considerably in the past 10 years, but the number of those living in one-room-flats is still considerable. In 1970 one fourth of the 15-49 aged women living in one-room-flats had three or more children, today this proportion is 18.4 percent. If we expose the question in terms of the number of children, we can sayithat in 1970 38 percent of the women with three children and 48 percent of the women with 4 or more children lived in oneroom-flats, this proportion decreased by 1980 but it is still high (18 and 28 percent respectively). In the past decade there was an improvement in the comfortness of the flats of married women. This is the result of the better equipment of new flats, the reconstruction of old flats. In correspondence with this, today 61 percent of the married women in reproductive age live in flats with full comfort, 12 percent of them live in flats with half-comfort, and 27 percent of them live in flats without any comfort. The respective proportions were 28, 12 and 60 percent 10 years ago. The average number of children per 100 married women is lowest in the case of flats with full comfort and highest in flats without any comfort. This is not a new phenomenon, the same tendency was observed before. At present two fifths of women with three children live in flats without any comfort, although this proportion decreased considerably since 1970 when it was 70.5 percent. The improvement was greatest in the comfortness of flats of those with two children, while in 1970 61 percent of them lived in flats without any comfort today only slightly more than one fourth of them live in such flats. Although the equipment of the flats improved to a large extent since 1970, the average number of children is lowest in flats with full comfort, and married women with the highest average number of children live in the least equipped flats, with no gas and water supply. 137