Russia’s total fertility rate, which hovered around two lifetime births per woman from the late 1960s through the early 1980s, has dropped steeply since 1987, falling to 1.4 births per woman in 1994. This decline has been accompanied by a trend toward earlier marriage and childbearing. Contraceptive use is limited, and abortion is the main fertility regulation method for many women. In 1992, the abortion rate was 98 per 1,000 women aged 15-49, and abortions outnumbered births by more than two to one. These are among the findings that Russian analysts presented at a 1995 conference on demographic trends in post-Soviet Russia.
Modernization and the Family One researcher described the demographic changes that have occurred as part of the rapid modernization of Russian society in general.2 Between 1959 and 1989, the proportion of Russian families living in urban areas rose from 53% to 74%, and the rate of labor-force participation among women aged 20-54 rose from 70% to 80%. In addition, levels of education increased considerably: The proportion of women with a secondary education increased steadily from 20% of those born in the late 1920s and early 1930s to 70-72% of those born between 1955 and 1969; the proportion with a postsecondary education rose from 7-9% to 21-24%. Similar increases occurred among men.
With these changes came a decline in the average family size from 3.6 members in 1959 to 3.2 in 1989. Whereas roughly equal proportions of families in 1959 consisted of two, three, four, or five or more members, the distribution in 1989 revealed notable shifts: The proportion of families with two members increased to 34%, and the proportion with five or more dropped to 13%. Similar changes took place among both urban and rural populations. While rural families were more likely than urban ones to have five or more members in 1989 (17% vs. 11%), surprisingly, they also were more likely to have only two members (37% vs. 33%).
Some 96% of men and women aged 45-49 have ever been married, and the proportion marrying at young ages has been growing. Among those born between 1955 and 1959,32% of women had married by 20 years of age and 49% of men had married by age 23, compared with 13% and 24%, respectively, of those born 30 years earlier.
Cohabitation among the unmarried is becoming increasingly common and tolerated in Russian society. Among men and women aged 16 and older, 47 per 1,000 and 39 per 1,000, respectively, were in cohabiting relationships in 1994. Although in general, a larger proportion of men than of women cohabit, the reverse is true at ages 16-24. Cohabitation is more prevalent in rural than in urban areas.
Tags:fertility decline, Russian families
