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 …

The Netherlands has seen a considerable decline of the period total fertility rate and delayed childbearing, just like … all other European countries. The drop in fertility, however, has not been as sharp as in many other regions of Europe …. The period total fertility rate in the Netherlands has stabilized since the late 1970s at around 1.6 children per woman …

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 …

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 …

abortion. New attitudes and perceptions about family, partnership, childbearing, and family planning are emerging. A major … earlier second and third births, however increase in completed cohort fertility was minimal. A third wave started in 2007 … was a turning point in the change of fertility and nuptiality models. The 1970s birth cohorts marry and become parents …

women’s health, been instrumental in childbearing postponement, have been a factor in changing partnership relations, and … in the evolution of values regarding sexuality, reproduction, and childbearing, but they have not been a principal cause … of contemporary low fertility. Assisted reproductive technology (ART) is emerging and having a slight positive impact on …