Demography of Russia and the Former Soviet Union

Lecture 6Sociology SOCI 20182

New Information about the Schedule of Censuses in CIS

2009 – Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Belarus, Azerbaijan

2010 – Russia, Tajikistan 2011 – Armenia, Ukraine 2012 – Turkmenistan ? - Uzbekistan, Moldova

Fertility measures

1. Crude Birth Rate, CBR 2. General Fertility Rate, GFR 3. Age-specific Fertility Rates, ASFR  or

Age-specific Birth Rates, ASBR 4. Marital Fertility Rate, MFR 5. Total Fertility Rate,  TFR (period and

cohort) 6. Gross Reproduction Rate, GRR 7. Net Reproduction Rate, NRR 8. Parity Progression Ratios, PPR

Crude Birth Rate, CBR

Number of births in the studied year divided by average size of the population during the year, per 1,000 persons:

Easy to calculate but depends not only on individual-level childbearing behavior, but also on age and sex distribution of population.

Total Fertility Rate,  TFR

Period total fertility rate, PTFR The average number of children a

women would bear in her life if she experiences the age-specific fertility rates prevailing at the study period.

Total Fertility Rate, TFR, for a given year is calculated by summing the age-specific fertility rates for that year over the range of reproductive ages.

Net Reproduction Rate, NRR (period)

The average number of DAUGHTERS a women would bear in her life if she experiences the age-specific fertility rates (for daughters) prevailing at the study period, AND if her daughters experienced the prevailing rates of mortality.

Takes into account both fertility and survival but difficult to calculate (detailed data required). All problems of period indicator (not applicable to real cohorts)

Age-specific fertility by residence in Belarus (2007)

Existing explanations of fertility drop during the 1990s

Economic crisis (uncertainty about the future and increasing the costs of child rearing)

Socio-cultural change (transition towards more western practices of family formation and childbearing)

Soviet pronatalist policies in the early 1980s (benefits for women giving birth to the 3rd child, 3-year paid maternity leave) – accelerated births which otherwise would happen later

Distribution of Russian households by number of children below age 18 in

2002

Families with many children in Russia

Only 6.6% of families in Russia have more than 3 children

Proportion of families with 3 and more children differs from 53% in Ingushetiya to 1% in St-Peterburg

Families with 3 and more children are the poorest compared to families with less children and have poor housing conditions

However self-rated health of children in these families does not differ from families with less children

New Survey in Russia

Two waves of demographic survey “Parents and children, men and women in family and society” as a part of international scientific program “Generations and Gender.”

First wave was conducted in 2004 and had 11,261 respondents.

Second wave took place in 2007 and had 11,117 respondents

Panel component – 7,786 respondents aged 21-82 years.

Effect of income on fertility (number of children per

woman)Higher income Lower income

Other factors of fertility (between two survey waves)

Having a partner (formal marriage status not important)

Previous children– probability of the second child was almost twice as lower and probability of the third and other child almost 7 times as lower compared to the first child

Rural residence (fertility in rural areas 1.4 times higher than in urban areas)

Maternal age – fertility is obviously higher among younger women (<35 years)

Effect of education and employment status is not strong

Factors of fertility decline (in %) between 1989 and 1999 in

KyrgyzstanKyrgyz women

Russian women

Total changes in TFR -40.9 -41.3

Changes in TFR due to:1. Changes in marriage structure (postponing marriage)

-15.2 -26.1

2. Induced abortions -10.0 -8.5

3. Other (contraception, longer lactation, etc.)

-15.7 -6.7

Decomposition using method of Bongaarts and Potter (1983)

Family in Russia, Reproductive Health and Marriage Patterns

Marriage

Marriage is a legal contract between two individuals to form a sexual, productive, and reproductive union

Important characteristics of marriage:

permanence, joint production, coresidence, and the social recognition of a sexual and childbearing union (Waite, Gallagher)

Measures of marriage

Crude marriage rate – number of marriages per 1000 population

Pros: Easy to calculate Cons: Is affected by population

structure (proportion of birth cohorts at young adult ages)

Number of marriages and crude marriage rate in Russia

Crude marriage rates (per 1000 population) in Russia, USA, and

Estonia

Russia: Recent trends in marriage

In 2001-2005 marriage rates increased (in 2005 crude marriage rate – 7.5 per 1000 - returned to its levels of early 1990s)

The number of first marriages grew faster than the number of marriages of other orders (by 29.5% for men and 30.2% for women during 1998-2005)

However the proportion of second and higher order marriages now (24-28% of all marriages) is 10% higher than 20 years ago

Marriage and divorce rates in Russia after 1979

Regional distribution of marriage rates per 1000 population in

Russia, 1999

Age-specific marriage rates in Russia

Total first marriage rate (TFMR)

Total first marriage rate — the probability of first marriage for a person if he/she passed through ages 15–49 conforming to the age-specific first marriage rates of a given year; refers to a synthetic cohort. It is calculated as the sum of the age-specific first marriage rates observed in a given year.

The indicator can exceed 1 in the years of rapid increase in the number of marriages, although it is excluded that a person can contract more than one first marriage.

Indicates popularity of marriage

Total first marriage rate, Russia

Age-specific first-marriage rates per 1000 in Russia

Mean age at first marriage in Russia, USA and Estonia

Total divorce rate – divorces per 1000 marriages, Russia

Regional distribution of divorce rates per 1000 population in

Russia, 1999

Degradation of divorce statistics after 1999

Legislation of 1999 – after the court decision former husband and wife were allowed to take their divorce certificates in any local branch of ZAGS rather than in the ZAGS where their marriage was registered

Result: double counting of divorces Attempted to correct in 2003 Increasing number of divorced with

unknown age

Marriage and divorce rates in Russia after 1979

Age-specific divorce rates (per married population) in

Kyrgyzstan

Solid line 1999

Dotted line 1989

Blue- men Red -

women

Kyrgyzstan: Marriage did not become more stable

In the 1990s the decline in divorces was slower than decline in marriages

Marriage rate decline by 45% and divorce rate declined by 34%

So the ratio of total divorce rate to total marriage rate increased from 0.22 to 0.27. That is, for 100 marriages there were 27 divorces in 1999 compared to 22 divorces in 1989 (calculated for synthetic cohort)

Family in Russia before the bolshevik revolution

Patriarchal family, many children

Marriages are registered

by church

Marriages in Russia, legislation

Bolsheviks introduced civil marriages as the only recognized union

The Code of 16 September, 1918: Fixed age of women at 16 years

and men at 18 years Equality of spouses Equal rights of children born in

marriage and outside of marriage

Family in the USSR

Soviet court

The Code of USSR Republics adopted in 1926

Facilitated divorces (only one spouse could request divorce, the other spouse being informed by mail – ‘divorce by postcard’)

Recognized ‘de facto’ marriages (not officially registered)

It was the most liberal marriage legislation in Russian history

Woman in the Soviet Union

Had equal rights with men

Including the right for labor

Soviet poster encourages women to fight outdated rules and customs of the past

Women in the Soviet Union

Had equal rights with men in all regards

Could elect and be elected

Women Who Report Having Suffered Physical Abuse by a Spouse or Partner (survey in 1993-

2001)

Note: Data for Russia cover three urban areas only. All data represent lifetime experiences of abuse.

Tightening of legislation after 1936

The Decree of 27 June 1936 – made divorce costly (first resulted in 65% fall of the number of divorces)

The Decree of 1941 “On taxes on unmarried, single and childless citizens of the USSR”

The Decree of 1944: cancelled the recognition of de facto unions (triggered off the wave of marriages)

Liberalization of legislation after death of Stalin

1954 – marriages with foreign citizens allowed

1955 – abortion was once again permitted

1957 – the tax on the single was annulled

1966 – the divorce procedure was simplified (in 1966-1967 the number of divorces almost doubled)

Proportion of remarriages per 100 marriages (all orders),

Russia

Marriage in traditional societies

Sexual, matrimonial and reproductive behaviors are tightly bound

Marriage in modern societies

Sexual, matrimonial and reproductive behaviors are not strongly related

Russia and other FSU countries are at the beginning of transition to the modern type of family

New trends in union formation and fertility in Russia

Increasing age at first marriage Growing proportion of cohabitation at

younger ages Rapid decline of fertility at very young ages Postponement of first births in real birth

cohorts Decline of abortions and simultaneous

decline of births before age 25 Increasing contribution of older mothers

into total fertility Decreasing number of marriages stimulated

by pre-marital conceptions

Current trends in marriage Young men do not rush to marry even in

the case of unexpected pregnancy of female partner

Young women tend to marry men with resources

As a result, increase in the mean age at marriage particularly for men (by 2.5 years for men and 1.9 years for women from 1993 to 2005)

Decrease in the number of births at very young ages

Increase in the mean difference between husband and wife ages (from 2 years to 2.8 years)

Increasing proportion of cohabitation

Proportion of unregistered unions increased from 11.4% in 1994 to 32.6% in 2002 for age group 18-19 years

In the age group 20-24 years this proportion increased from 6.7% in 1994 to 19% in 2002

Similar trends for older age groups Demographers called it “silent

revolution” in marriage

Rapid decline of fertility at very young ages

Age-specific fertility at different ages

Increasing age at first marriage (women)

Reproductive health

Abortions in Russia

1988  - 4.6 million 1990 - 3.92 million 1995 - 2.57 million 2000 - 1.96 million 2002 - 1.78 million

Source: Russian Ministry of Health

Soviet poster circa 1925 against criminal abortions

Abortion rates in Russia and USA

Abortion rates in Europe

Changing pattern of abortion

By the late 1980s, the number of women using modern contraceptive methods to prevent births exceeded the number who used abortion to do so.

Russian contraceptive access has increased in part through efforts by the Russian government and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID)

Abortion and modern contraceptives use (IUD, pills) in

Russia

Trends in Abortion Rates in Belarus

Number of abortions per 1000 women aged 15-49

Trends in Abortion Rates in Belarus

Number of abortions per 100 births

Reproductive Health Trends in Eastern Europe and Eurasia

Report of Population Reference Bureau (2003)

by Lori Ashford

Based on population surveys

Two U.S.-based agencies, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and ORC Macro, helped national institutions conduct surveys in Eastern Europe and Eurasia from 1993 to 2001.

The two types of surveys, Reproductive Health Surveys (RHS) and Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS), interviewed women from a representative sample of households in each country to gather extensive information on fertility, family planning, maternal and infant health, and other reproductive health topics.

Major support came from the U.S. Agency for International Development, with funding in some countries from the United Nations Population Fund and UNICEF.

Fertility decline in selected FSU countries

Abortions In most countries, abortions are most

common among women ages 20 to 34. Most women who reported having an

abortion said that they did not want and could not afford another child. The vast majority of abortions follow unintended pregnancies, which mainly occur among women who do not use contraception or who use traditional methods that have relatively high failure rates.

Between 71 percent and 90 percent of unintended pregnancies end in abortion, indicating that women are strongly motivated to avoid an unplanned birth.

Trends in abortion rates in selected countries

In many Central Asian countries decline in abortion rates was caused by emigration of Russians who have higher abortion rates compared to local ethnic groups

Reproductive health indicators in 1996-2001, FSU

Lifetime number of abortions per woman

% Mothers receiving prenatal care (1st trimester)

Births Outside Medical

Facilities (%)

Russia 2.3 83 1.8

Ukraine 1.6 66 0.9

Armenia 2.6 54 8.5

Azerbaijan 3.2 45 26.3

Georgia 3.7 63 7.8

Kazakhstan 1.4 60 1.6

Kyrgyzstan 1.5 72 3.8

Turkmenistan

0.8 72 4.2

Uzbekistan 0.6 73 5.9

Potential Need for Modern Contraceptive Methods*

*Includes married, fecund women who say they would prefer to avoid a pregnancy but who either are not using any contraception or are using a traditional method such as withdrawal or periodic abstinence.

Traditional contraception methods and abortions