Changing Childbirth and Marriage Tendencies Across Europe and the U.S.
As societies go through different cycles of development, choices concerning marriage and childbearing change as well
The changing tendencies
For a society that is in the early stages of development, stability and the number of children per family matter a lot. Children are vital if one wants help conducting household affairs. They work in the fields, help to manage the family’s abode, and take care of their parents when they get old.
Nonetheless, when a society reaches a higher standard of living marked by important economical, technological, social and medical changes, rarely do children continue to act as an active force of labor. Instead, other institutions step in (such as schools and nursery homes) relieving children from much of the aforementioned tasks. As a consequence, the number of children per capita of people drops significantly.
Other reasons affect these changes as well, such as the introduction of various forms of birth control, sexual education, women’s integration into the workforce and changing cultural standards and norms.
Birthrates and the average age of mothers during the first birth
Some of these tendencies can be observed by evaluating the map down below. According to the countries by birth rate metric from 2017, we can see that Japan, South Korea and most European countries have some of the lowest birth rates per 1000 people. The red and orange portion of the map shows where birth rates are currently the highest.
It is not just that in many countries people nowadays choose to have fewer children (if any), but the average age of mothers at first birth has a tendency to be delayed as well.
If we took for example the United States, we can see that every decade moving forward more women are embracing pregnancy when they are older than before. As women in their 30s and even 40s are starting to pick up the pace with childrearing, the birthrates of women in their teens and 20s are steadily coming down:
Marital age in the U.S. and Europe
Do similar tendencies apply to their marital age? It seems that they do! According to the infographic provided by the U.S. Department of Commerce, we can see a tendency that throughout the years both men and women have begun to embrace later marriages; if marrying at all.
According to Eurostat, similar tendencies can be observed in most European countries as well:
Marriage and divorce rates
Even though the number of marriages in England and Wales were steadily decreasing ever since the divorce reform in 1969, from 2010 the tendency has shown a promise to change direction.
Divorce rates, on the other hand, seem to have more or less stabilized.
Somewhat similar tendencies can be observed in the US as well, although it seems that marriage rates are still plummeting even though the same is happening with the divorce rates.
Changing cultural norms and domestic partnerships
How can we interpret this data? What could be the reasons driving all three aforementioned statistics (birth, marriage, and divorce rates) down in so many developed countries?
According to Bella DePaulo, a PhD and professor of Psychology, nowadays there is much less pressure for people to marry young or to have children. Many people choose not to marry at all. As explained by the professor:
Decades ago, people often waited (or tried to wait) until marrying before having kids, having sex, or buying a home. Now those possibilities are readily available outside of marriage.
Similarly, people don’t receive as much shame as they used to for not marrying or not raising children. Nowadays, the cultural norms toward single parents have shifted as well. Reviewing the statistics in the U.S. she comments:
It used to be considered shameful to have children outside of marriage. Today, single parents and their children still get some side-eye, but attitudes are more enlightened than they once were.
Plus, if you are raising kids, and you are not married, you have record numbers of other people to keep you company. One out of every four parents (25 percent) is unmarried, compared to just 7 percent in 1968.
Likewise, more people than before are choosing to live alone and embrace solitude. As most women are no longer dependent on support from a partner, some of them, just like their male counterparts choose to put their careers, friends, passions, or other family members front and centre realizing that marriage is not as imperative as it once was.
Also, it is important to add that domestic partnerships and laws attributed to them are changing the place and structure of marriage as well. Even though for the time being marriage tends to offer more legal rights and protections to couples than domestic partnerships do, these tendencies might shift in the upcoming years.
A few questions as food for thought
What do you think about the changing structure of our societal fabric? Is marriage (as a social institution) losing face? Should it be placed on the same legal ground as domestic partnerships? Might people in the future, depending if they are religious or not, choose one institution over the other without risking any shortcomings in terms of their legal rights as a couple?
Let me know in the comments down below. :)
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