The Link between Women’s Education and Non-Marital Childbearing in the Czech Republic
The Link between Women’s Education and Non-Marital Childbearing in the Czech Republic

Summary/Abstract: Since the 1990s the fertility and nuptiality behaviour of Czech women has changed substantially. Both the sharp decline in fertility and nuptiality levels and the postponement of family formation until higher ages have been extensively analysed. One of the most noticeable trends was the increase in the proportion of non-marital childbirths. It is however still not clear what proportion of unmarried mothers is cohabiting and how many of them are living alone. Until recently, there has not been conducted any systematic research on family situation of new mothers in the Czech Republic. In an attempt to estimate the extent of cohabitation and lone motherhood, their increase during last two decades, and the relationship to woman’s education, we use statistic records of births and marriages of the Czech Statistical Office, linked according to the unique ID# of woman, to analyse the behaviour of mothers before and after first childbirth and to estimate the prevalence of mother’s family status during childbirth (childbirth in marriage – with/without premarital conception, birth in cohabitation – premarital or permanent, and lone motherhood) and its change over two periods (1991-96 vs. 2001-06). The increase of proportion of non-marital births in last two decades was counterbalanced especially by the decrease of premarital conceptions: Contrary to the past, when pregnancy was a strong impetus to marry promptly before birth delivery, pregnant single women now tend to stay single. About half of these mothers then experience neither marriage nor second childbirth until next six years, and they are considered as lone mothers. Other quarter marry after childbirth, while last quarter bear also second child without entering marriage. The main finding of this paper is that wide differences exist between educational categories of women. While primary educated mothers tend to be lone or to cohabit even after second childbirth, higher educated women mostly conceive and even concept their first child traditionally after marriage.

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