Archive:Marriages and births in Croatia
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Is there a change occurring in Croatia in the 21st century?
- Authors of the article: Maja Pekeč and Vlatka Petrić, Croatian Bureau of Statistics
- Authors of figures and infograph: Elena Vrbanić and Nino Mrša, Croatian Bureau of Statistics
- Data extracted in June 2015.
This article on marriages and births is part of a pilot project implemented by Eurostat together with the Member States. The aim of the pilot project is to better reply to user's needs by complementing the Eurostat article presenting data on an EU level with more detailed information on the same topic, but at national level. Articles from the participating Member States are available in the corresponding national languages as well as in English and they form, together with the Eurostat article, an online publication.
Family as the fundamental unit of human societies is slowly changing. Since marriage as a legally and socially determined union with centuries of tradition is the basis on which a family rests, this article shows the annual indicators of the natural changes in the population related to marriages and live births for the period from 2000 to 2013, as well as census data regarding the legal marital status and types of unions. The most interesting indicators are shown in the infographic.
Source: Croatian Bureau of Statistics, 2011 Census of Population, Households and Dwellings, Table 6 – Population aged 15 and over, by type of union the person lives in, age and sex [1]
Source: Croatian Bureau of Statistics, 2011 Census of Population, Households and Dwellings, Table 6 – Population aged 15 and over, by legal marital status, age and sex; by towns/municipalities [2]; Table 6 – Population aged 15 and over, by type of union person lives in, age and sex; Republic of Croatia [3]; Table 3 – Population aged 15 and over, by legal marital status, type of union person lives in, age and sex; by counties [4]
Source: Croatian Bureau of Statistics, 2011 Census of Population, Households and Dwellings, Table 6 – Population aged 15 and over, by legal marital status, age and sex; by towns/municipalities [5]; Table 6 – Population aged 15 and over, by type of union person lives in, age and sex; Republic of Croatia [6]; Table 3 – Population aged 15 and over, by legal marital status, type of union person lives in, age and sex; by counties [7]
Main statistical findings
Changes in marital status of population of Croatia
In countries, including Croatia, where tradition has a strong influence, the percentage of married men and women is relatively high. According to the data from the 2011 Census of Population, Households and Dwellings in the Republic of Croatia, 59.2% of the population aged 20 and above are comprised of married men and women. It, therefore, does not come as a surprise that the majority of the 23.8% of the total population of persons aged 20 and above who never married is comprised of persons from the youngest age groups, i. e. persons in their twenties and thirties. The percentage of the younger age groups (from 20 to 39 years) in the total number of persons who never married is extremely high (73.3%). According to sex, the numbers are uneven, with a much larger percentage of men who never married than women comprising the total number within the same age group. On the other hand, as far as the widowed, which comprise 12.0% of the total population of persons aged 20 and above, are concerned, most of them are, expectedly, from the older age groups (70 years or more). According to sex, there are also noticeable differences within these older age groups. For women aged 70 or more, the proportion of widowed women was 63.2%, while for men of the same age group it was 20.0%. This kind of distribution according to sex is related to the fact that women live 7 years longer, on average, than men. The number of divorced persons among the total number of persons aged 20 or above was relatively low and amounted to 4.8%. An unknown marital status was recorded for 0.2% of the total number of persons aged 20 and above see here.
According to data from the 2001 Census of Population, Households and Dwellings in the Republic of Croatia, 63.5% of the population aged 20 and above was comprised of married men and women, 20.3% of men and women who never married, 12.0% of widowed persons, 3.8% of divorced persons and 0.4% of persons with an unknown marital status. Looking at changes within the legal marital status from the 2011 Census and 2001 Census, it can be seen that the share of married men and women in the intercensus period decreased, while the shares of men and women who never married and of divorced persons increased. The visible changes in the marital status of the population of Croatia are an effect of an increase of the mean age at first marriage, that is, of the increasing number of one-person households and extra-marital unions as well as the decreasing number of new marriages and the increasing number of divorces see here.
The decrease in number of marriages and the increase in number of divorces
In 2013, 19 169 new marriages were formed, which was 5.7% less than in the previous year or 18.0% less than in 2008, when the highest number of newly-formed marriages for the observed 13-year period was recorded. It is interesting that in 2013 the number of newly-formed marriages fell below 20 000 for the first time, which surely happened due to the multi-year decrease in the size of the population between the ages of 20 and 39, that is, of the population belonging to the age group in which the largest number of marriages are formed. The marriage rate (the number of newly-formed marriages per 1 000 inhabitants) amounted to 4.5 in 2013, unlike in 2007 and 2008 when it amounted to 5.4.
The age at which young people in Croatia decide to get married is constantly increasing. This fact is mostly due to a set of social and economic factors. The ever increasing coverage of younger generations by higher education is a very important element in pushing the marriage age to older age groups. Further reasons can be found in the independence of women, who have been more and more included on the labour market in recent years. The number of young people who intend to get married but who are living together before getting married is growing. All these factors contribute to the increase in the mean age of both the bride and the groom at first marriage. Thus, in 2001, the mean age of the bride at first marriage was 25.4 years and of the groom 28.5 years, while in 2013, the mean age of the bride was 27.6 years and of the groom 30.5 years. These facts show that men get married at a later age than women, and most often with women younger than themselves.
In the observed 13-year period, the most divorces were recorded in 2013 when their number amounted to 5 992, while the lowest number was recorded in 2000 at 4 419. Thus, in 2013, the crude divorce rate, which means the number of divorces per 1 000 inhabitants, amounted to 1.4 and in 2000 to 1.0.
The analysis of the number of marriages and divorces in the period from 2000 to 2013 show variations throughout the individual years, but the trend indicates a decrease in the number of marriages and an increase in divorces, although the scale of the decrease in marriages is lower than the increase in divorces. In other words, as compared with 2000, the number of marriages dropped by 12.9% and the number of divorces increased by 35.6%.
Increase in the number of live births outside marriage
The decrease in the number of marriages affects to a certain extent the long-term tendency of a decreased number of live births (natality), having in mind that in Croatia most children are born in marriages even today. Out of 39 939 live births in 2013, there were 83.9% born in marriage. Although the marital union is still an important social structure, the number of children born outside marriage has been growing over the years (see Table 1). Thus the number of children born outside marriage in the 13-year period grew from 9.0% in 2000 to 16.1% in 2013.
In spite of the increase of the number of children born outside marriage, in 2013, after a ten-year period, only 39 939 live births were recorded, which is a decrease of 8.7% compared with 2000. Although the number of live born children varies over the years, it can be expected in the future that the number of live births will decrease because of the decrease in the total number of women of the fertile age, which constantly fell over the entire observed period. The total fertility rate, which is one of the most accurate indicators of population reproduction trends, was also significantly under the simple reproduction level, which is set at 2.1, in the entire 13-year period observed. The lowest total fertility rate of 1.41 was recorded in 2003, while the highest rate of 1.58 was recorded in 2009.
The average age of the mother at the birth of the first child has been slightly increasing for a number of years as women get married at ever later age, that is, they decide to give birth to their first child at ever later age. Thus, in 2001, the average age of the mother at the birth of the first child was 25.7 years, while in 2013 it was 28.0 years.
A married man and a married woman do not necessarily make a marital union
Except for data about the legal marital status, the 2011 Census was the first census for which data about the types of unions persons live in had been gathered. In societies similar to the Croatian one, in which traditional views regarding many aspects of life prevail, the most common form of marital union is between two people of the opposite sex. In Figure 1, it can be seen that 56.6% of the total population aged 20 and above live in a marital union, 40.5% lives neither in a marital, nor in an extra-marital, nor in a same-sex union, 2.9% live in an extra-marital union and only 0.004% in a same-sex union.
Out of the total number of married men and women aged 20 and above, 95.5% live in a marital union, 0.2% live in an extra-marital or same-sex union, while 4.3% live neither in a marital, nor in an extra-marital, nor in a same-sex union (see Table 2). In other words, a minority of the population aged 20 and above, although comprised of married men and women according to their legal marital status, does not live with their partners and therefore does not constitute a marital union. The population aged 20 years and over by legal marital status, type of union in which the person lives and sex is presented in Figure 2.
Within the observed 13-year period, an increase in the share of civil marriages, and therefore a decrease in the share of religious marriages, was recorded. The share of religious marriages decreased from almost two thirds of the total number of new marriages in 2000. In Table 3 it can be seen that, out of the total number of new marriages in 2013, 56.7% were religious and 43.3% were civil marriages, which is a significant change in relation to 2000 when 64.7% of new marriages were religious and 35.3% were civil.
See also
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