in importance, and its role as the main institution on which family relations are built has been eroded across Europe …. Union formation most often takes place without a marriage. Family and living arrangements are currently heterogeneous across … hand, and the overall level of fertility, on the other, is not straightforward. In most countries, marriage rates and …

Considering its very low fertility and high age at childbearing, Italy stands alone in the European context and can … pregnancy, delivery, and the first months of a newborn’s life, while forming a family and childbearing choices are considered … hardly be compared with other countries, even those in the Southern region. The fertility decline occurred without any …

policy is considered to be a failure in terms of its influence on fertility. German family policy has had a traditional …Germany is a low-fertility country with a rapidly ageing population, and will remain so for the foreseeable future … forms the basis for widespread decisions against family formation. The desired number of children has become low and family …

Following the swift demise of the state-socialist regime in 1989, a profound transformation of family and fertility … patterns has taken place in the Czech Republic. Family formation has been postponed and period fertility rates have fallen to … childbearing, which was conducive to later and more carefully planned family formation. The rapidity of observed changes can be …

For a very long time, Albania has had one of the highest levels of fertility in Europe: in 2002 the total fertility … a rapid fertility reduction during the last 50 years: a TFR decline from 7 to 2.2. This reduction has occurred in the … communist regime that produced policies with indirect effects on fertility. Most significant of these were policies focused on …

After the state socialist regime of Poland collapsed in 1989, the nation’s total fertility rate plummeted from 2.1 to … 1.27 by 2007. Simultaneously, Poland severely reduced social service provisions and restricted access to family planning … with small children are decisive in women’s decisions to postpone or forego childbearing. The case of Poland demonstrates …

postponement, an end to universal childbearing, and the emergence of non-marital births. Family formation has been postponed, but a …, fertility has gone through major changes, namely, a massive reduction in fertility and important structural changes: birth … universal preference for parenting. However, the preference for the two-child family has declined and the desire for a larger …

nearly universal entry into parenthood, dominance of a two-child family model, an early start and early end of childbearing …This chapter provides a detailed description of the fertility changes in Bulgaria during recent decades and discusses … considerable decline in fertility. Before the fall of communism, fertility trends in Bulgaria were stable and characterized by a …