Marriage Out of Vogue, Kids Out of Wedlock in Bulgaria

Politics » BULGARIA IN EU | September 10, 2010, Friday // 17:48
Bulgaria: Marriage Out of Vogue, Kids Out of Wedlock in Bulgaria In 2008, more than half of all births in Bulgaria were outside marriage. Photo by BGNES

While wedding bells may be ringing daily in Cyprus, in Bulgaria it is more a case of "I don't", where marriage rates are the second lowest in the Europe Union at 3.6%, Eurostat figures show.

The EU is seeing a waning popularity of marriage, while Slovenia had the lowest marriage rate among all EU member states in 2008, the Yearbook 2010, a 635-page compendium of EU statistics show.

Cyprus had the highest rates of all EU member states, at 7.7%, followed by Lithuania (7.2%) and Romania (6.9%).

Eurostat also said EU marriage rates have decreased from 6.3 marriages per 1,000 people in 1990 to 4.9 marriages per 1,000 in 2008. The only EU nations to see an increase in marriages were Denmark, Ireland, Poland, Finland and Sweden.

The figures show the number of children born out of wedlock in the 27-nation bloc has doubled over the past two decades and now accounts for over one-third of the region's births.

A total of 35.1% of births in 2008 occurred outside of marriage, up from 17.4% in 1990 and 25.1% in 1998.

Births outside of marriage have doubled in the past twenty years.  In 2008, more than half of all births were outside marriage in Estonia (59.0%), Sweden (54.7%), Slovenia (52.8%), France (52.6%) and Bulgaria (51.1%).

Women in Greece (5.9%) and Cyprus (8.9%) were the least likely to have babies out of wedlock.

We need your support so Novinite.com can keep delivering news and information about Bulgaria! Thank you!

Bulgaria in EU » Be a reporter: Write and send your article
Tags: Bulgaria, eurostat, children, marriage

Advertisement
Advertisement
Bulgaria news Novinite.com (Sofia News Agency - www.sofianewsagency.com) is unique with being a real time news provider in English that informs its readers about the latest Bulgarian news. The editorial staff also publishes a daily online newspaper "Sofia Morning News." Novinite.com (Sofia News Agency - www.sofianewsagency.com) and Sofia Morning News publish the latest economic, political and cultural news that take place in Bulgaria. Foreign media analysis on Bulgaria and World News in Brief are also part of the web site and the online newspaper. News Bulgaria