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Chapter2:ThePolishCase
Ifweconsidertheperiodindicators,thirdandhigher-orderbirthsaccounted
for29%ofallbirthsin1989,whereasin2004thissharewasonly18%(Central
StatisticalOffice2005a).Thenumberofthird,aswellasfourthandhigherbirth
orders,hasdeclinedbyaround60%since1990(KurkiewiczandFrątczak2006).
Thistrendisnoticeableinthecohortmeasuresaswell.Figure2.3illustratesthe
cohortchangesinparityforwomenbornin1938-1966.Itindicatesthatthenum-
berofwomenwithfourormorechildrenhassteadilydeclined.Amongyounger
cohorts(born1960-1966),theproportionofwomenwithtwoorthreechildren
hasalsodecreased.
Figure2.3:Paritydistributions,cohortsbornin1938-1966.Source:Kotowskaetal.
2008,p.806,reproducedwiththeauthors’permission.
Themostprofoundchange,capturedinFigure2.3,is,however,asteepin-
creaseinchildlessnessfortheyoungercohorts.Thisisarelativelynewdevelop-
ment,asamongwomenbornin1940-1955inPolandonlyabout7%to9%re-
mainedchildless(Kotowskaetal.2008,Sobotka2004).Theselevelsplaced
Polandinthecategoryofcountrieswithlowlevelsofchildlessness.Atthe
moment,PolandhasalevelofchildlessnesssimilartolevelsseeninWesternand
NorthernEurope,andoneofthehighestinthepost-socialistcountries.Inthe
cohortbornin1965,slightlymorethan15%ofwomenhaveneverhadachild
(Frejka2008a;seeTable2.1).