Юношеската раждаемост като проблем на съвременната динамика на раждаемостта в България
Teenage Fertility as a Basic Problem of Fertility in Bulgaria

Summary/Abstract: Fertility dynamics during the last decades is analyzed in the paper. The central argument is that teenage fertility in Bulgaria is too high compared to the other European countries, what calls the need for a special policy. The society is misguided with respect to the assessment of fertility trends, as far as the general opinion it that it is too low and decreasing, while in reality it has been increasing during the last decade. The present levels of fertility are at the European medium level. The tendencies are upwards, and the expectation based on some demographic arguments (restructuring of the age distribution of fertility) are that this trend will continue in the future. Nevertheless urgent policy is needed to decrease the teenage fertility. With the present policy the high teenage fertility is a modus of poverty alleviation, preformed rationally in a specific (“traditional”) social setting, typical for some segments of the ethnic Roma population. In these settings young people (teenagers) are being pushed to early childbearing by their extremely poor families as a source of income (provided by social assistance allowances distributed upon the income “per capita”) for the whole family. At the same time these teenagers, who become parents, “drop out” from school, which in turn perpetuates the vicious circle of poverty and early childbearing.

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