Extra-marital Births in Europe and in Hungary in the 90s

Abstract

The number and proportion of extra-marital births have been rapidly growing since the early 90s in Hungary. In the second part of the 1980s only 10% of all the live births were the outcome of relations of unmarried parents, however, that proportion has grown to about 25% by 1996-1997. The paper illustrates with summed up data and diagrams that though such a rapid growth is not an exceptional phenomenon in Europe, Hungary is among those countries which still strongly preserve traditional family life based on marriage.The authors also report about the results of a survey made by questionnaire. It was done on the basis of a 1500-member national representative sample of mothers who had their babies outside wedlock in 1995, and aimed at studying the decisions of having children and the attitudes towards a non-married way of life. By comparing the results with foreign experiences it is found that though the majority of mothers lived in a partnership relation, almost 60% of them did not consider it a final form, as they planned to marry after a shorter or longer period of time. The authors call attention to the fact that family policy and family law will also have to be prepared for the appearance of alternative forms of family life.