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Attitudes toward unmarried
cohabitation and marriage in
Hungary
Adél Rohr Junior Research Fellow
Hungarian Demographic Research Institute
Doctoral Student
Doctoral School of Sociology and Demography - University of Pécs
Prague, 10-11 September 2015
Marriage and unmarried cohabitation in Hungary
• Changing partnership behavior
– Postponement
– Dropping number of marriages (unmarried cohabitation,
singles)
• Different Hungarian and European patterns
• Unmarried cohabitation:
– Earlier: widowed/divorced
– Now: single
• In the 1970’s - first relationships: cohabitation, but
they got married
2
Number of first marriages and remarriages, 1970-2013
3
0
20000
40000
60000
80000
100000
120000
19
70
19
71
19
72
19
73
19
74
19
75
19
76
19
77
19
78
19
79
19
80
19
81
19
82
19
83
19
84
19
85
19
86
19
87
19
88
19
89
19
90
19
91
19
92
19
93
19
94
19
95
19
96
19
97
19
98
19
99
20
00
20
01
20
02
20
03
20
04
20
05
20
06
20
07
20
08
20
09
20
10
20
11
20
12
20
13
Neither party had been married previouslyOne of the parties had been married previouslyBoth parties had been married previouslyTotal
Source of data: Hungarian Central Statistical Office, Demographic Yearbooks
The proportion of people who live in unmarried cohabitation by marital
status (15 years or older population)
4
30%
53% 64%
10%
4%
2%
14%
9%
5%
46% 34%
29%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
1990 2001 2011
Divorced
Widowed
Married
Single
Source of data: Hungarian Central Statistical Office
Changing trends – changing attitudes
• Information source about attitudes:
– ISSP (1988, 1994, 2002, 2013)
• Between 1988 and 2013
– Married people are happier than unmarried people: from
55% to 42%
– Couples should get married if they want to have children:
from 65% to 40%
• Rate of first births outside marriage: 52%
• Rate of total births outside marriage: 47%
– Marriage is an outdated institution: 25%
5
„What kind of partnership do you suggest for a
young, single man/woman?”
6
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
1988 2013 1988 2013
For men For women
Other/Don't know
To live alone without a steadypartner
To live with a steady partner,without marrying
To live with a steady partnerfor a while, and then marry
To marry without livingtogether first
The proportion of people who accept unmarried cohabitation and
prevalence of cohabitation in Europe
7
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
Lith
uan
ia
Slo
vaki
a
Cze
ch R
epu
blik
Latv
ia
Cro
atia
Bu
lgar
ia
Po
lan
d
Un
ited
Kin
gdo
m
Hu
nga
ry
Slo
ven
ia
Au
stri
a
Irel
and
Ger
man
y
Fran
ce
No
rway
Swed
en
Fin
lan
d
Swit
zerl
and
Icel
and
Den
mar
k
Agree: 'It is all right for a couple to live together without intending to getmarried.'Proportion of people who live in cohabitation union (2011)
Research question
• How do the main sociological and demographical factors influence the
attitudes toward cohabitation as a stable and durable partnership form?
• Binary logistic regression
• Dependent variable: ’It is all right for a couple to live together without
intending to get married.’ (5-point scale – accept: 4-5)
• Independent variables:
– Sex
– Age
– Education level
– Place of residence
– Religiousness (Attendance of religious service)
– Children
– Real partnership status and earlier cohabitation
– Bad marriage experience
8
Results
9
Exp. (B)
Sex of the Respondent (Reference group: Male)
Female 1.127
Age of the Respondent (Reference group: 65 years old or older)
18-24 years 2.152 **
25-34 years 3.020 ***
35-44 years 2.725 ***
45-54 years 2.076 **
55-64 years 2.119 ***
Education level (Reference group: Primary school)
Secondary school 1.102
University/collage degree 1.034
Place of residence (Reference group: Capital city and its agglomeration)
City and the agglomeration 2.118 ***
Town 2.208 ***
Village 1.660 **
Results
10
Exp. (B)
Religiousness (Reference group: Attendance of religious service: at least once
in a month)
Attend religious service less frequently than once in a month 2.416 ***
Never attend religious service 4.452 ***
Children (Reference group: Have/had children)
Never had children 0.999
Partnership status and earlier cohabitation (Reference group: live in
cohabitation)
Married and lived together before the marriage 1.317
Married, did not lived together before the marriage 0.442 **
Live alone, earlier was married 0.465 **
Single, earlier lived in cohabitation 1.345
Single, never lived in cohabitation 0.550
Bad marriage experience (Reference group: Never had a divorce and do not
live separately)
Divorced earlier or married but live separately 1.940 ***
Summary
• Cohabitation is usually the first stable partnership for young
and single people
• Popular among divorced or widowed people
• The acceptance is growing – also births outside marriage
and cohabitation union as a stable and durable partnership
form
• BUT: most of the Hungarian people think that marriage is
the ideal partnership form for young people and marriage is
not an outdated institution
• Important factors: age, place of residence, religiousness,
partnership status and partnership history
• Later…
– How did these factors change in the last decades?
– How do they work in other countries? 11
