Archive:Marriages and births in Slovakia
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Nuptiality, divorce and fertility in Slovakia
- Author: Statistical Office of the Slovak Republic, Population Statistics Department
- Data extracted in October 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.
Developments in nuptiality and fertility are associated with the second demographic transition: they commenced in the first half of the 1980s and the trends intensified from1989. The first signs included a decrease in the number of marriages and an increase in the number of divorces. Secondary signs included an increase in the average age at which a woman first married or give birth to her first child and in an increased share of children born out of wedlock.
Main statistical findings
Marital status
The family as an institution has undergone various changes throughout history. At present, the most common are mainly transformations in the roles of family members (the position of the father is less dominant, mothers devote themselves more to their professional careers), in the functions (the socio-educational function is partly taken over by schools and other institutions) and the size of the family (fewer children, reduction in multi-generation households). In spite of these changes, the family is still widely considered to be a stabilising element in society. The basic population groups in the Slovak Republic are the following: single, married, divorced and widowed. During the intercensal period, the population structure by marital status has undergone certain changes reflecting nuptiality, divorce and fertility developments during the reference period. The most numerous population group among those aged 20 and over is still the married, despite a decrease from 61.4 % to 52.3 %. There was an increased share of singles, from 21.2 % in 2001 to 26.4 % in 2011, and the share of the divorced increased from 6 % to nearly 10 %. The share of the widowed remained at a relatively stable level.
Marriages
Since 2000, the number of marriages has ranged approximately between 24 and 28 thousand per year. In 1994, it fell below 30 thousand since when it has never exceeded that level. In the second half of the 1970s, when the highest number of marriages were concluded, there were around 44 thousand a year on average. The number was lowest in 2001, when only 23.8 thousand marriages were concluded.
In 2013, 25 491 couples got married, and the crude marriage rate reached 4.7 ‰.
The proportion of first marriages in the Slovak Republic oscillated around 90 % for both men and women. However, in recent years, there has been a gradual decrease in the first marriage rate to 85-87 % for men and 87-89 % for women. The share of first married couples in the overall number of marriages concluded was 80 %.
Divorces
Divorce is the legal termination of a marriage. In 2013, 10.9 thousand marriages were terminated, 2 divorces fewer than in 2012. At the beginning of the reference period (in 2000), fewer than 9.3 thousand marriages ended in divorce, the number gradually increasing until 2006 (12.7 thousand divorces). In the next period (until 2010), the number of divorces annually exceeded 12 thousand. From 2010, the divorce rate shows a slightly declining trend.
Cohabitation
In 2011, there were 90 thousand cohabiting couples, an increase of 60 thousand compared with 2001. Looking at the marital status of the cohabiting couples, in 2011 only 27 % of them were singles (never married), so almost three quarters of these cohabitations were in some form reconstructed families. The largest group consisted of two divorced partners (one third) and the third largest group in terms of number and proportion was one single and one divorced partner (16 %).
Births
Comparing the mean age of women at first birth and at first marriage, a tendency is observed for the birth of the first child to precede marriage.
In terms of the number of children born, there has been a stabilising trend in birth rates. At the beginning of the reference period, in 2000, the number of live births was 55 thousand. During the 2001-2003 period, this value reached its minimum (below 52 thousand live births), which led to a natural population decrease.
During the following years, births gradually increased to reach 61 thousand live births in 2009. Then up to 2013 there was a slight decrease in live births, however remaining above the level of ten years ago. Over the entire reference period (2000-2013) there was a slight increase in the total fertility rate. The total fertility rate was around 1.2 children per woman in 2002, compared with 1.4 children per woman in 2011.
National specificities
In recent years, ongoing changes in demographic processes associated with the second demographic transition have been reflected in the Slovak population. These changes can be observed mainly in the fertility, nuptiality, divorce and abortion processes. However, in terms of population processes, 2013 can be characterized as a year of stabilization and the established demographic trends were not fundamentally affected by the year-on-year changes.
However, the long-lasting, adverse changes in the fertility rate as well as the positive development in life expectancy at birth have profoundly affected the ageing of the Slovak population.
Regardless of whether or not the ageing is caused by low fertility or by the prolongation of life expectancy, ageing has become a major challenge for the demographic reality of Slovakia.
Data sources and availability
Sources of demographic data
- DATACube
- Population and migration: Key Indicators
- The Population Change in the SR in 2014: ´Source Publication 2014´
- The Population Change in the SR in 2013: ´Source Publication 2013´
See also
External links