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 …

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 … Europe, but all countries seem to be making the same shifts: towards fewer people living together as a couple, especially in …

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 …

Societal conditions for early and high rates of childbearing were replaced by conditions generating late and low levels … of fertility common in Western countries. Central among factors shaping the latter behaviour (job insecurity, unstable … performing most household maintenance and childrearing duties. Two theories prevailed to explain what caused changes in family …

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 …

births within cohabitation. Relatively few studies in Europe, however, investigate the educational gradient of childbearing … hazard models to examine the educational gradient of childbearing in cohabitation in 8 countries across Europe. In all … cohabiting fertility with marital fertility, the negative educational gradient persists in all countries except Italy, although …

For a very long time, Albania has had one of the highest levels of fertility in Europe: in 2002 the total fertility … rate of 2.2 children per woman was the highest in Europe. Although this current level is high, the country has experienced … a rapid fertility reduction during the last 50 years: a TFR decline from 7 to 2.2. This reduction has occurred in the …

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 …

-- has become the main instrument of birth regulation in Northern and Western Europe and gaining ground in Southern Europe … and the formerly state socialist countries of Central and Eastern Europe. Legal induced abortion use, which was highly … prevalent in Central and Eastern Europe, has been declining since the demise of authoritarian regimes around 1990. Nonetheless …