Eurostat: 59.9% of children in Bulgaria born outside marriage
In 2021, a total of 59.9 per cent of the births in Bulgaria were outside marriage, according to figures posted on April 13 by European Union statistics agency Eurostat.
The rate of children born outside marriage in Bulgaria has been rising steadily over the decades, with a clear dividing line between the country’s communist and post-communist eras.
According to Eurostat, in 1961 a total of eight per cent of births in Bulgaria were outside marriage, rising to 9.6 per cent in 1971 and 10.3 per cent in 1981.
In 1991, after the end of the communist era in Bulgaria, the percentage was 15.5 per cent, rising to 42 per cent in 2001, to 56.1 per cent in 2011 and to 59.6 per cent in 2020.
The most recent year for which Eurostat posted an EU average for births outside marriage is 2011, a total of 37.8 per cent, meaning that at that stage, Bulgaria was well above the EU average.
Bulgaria did not have the highest figure for births outside marriage in 2021, among the countries for which figures are available.
The rates were higher in Portugal (60 per cent) and France (63.5 per cent). Among EU countries for which figures are available, the lowest rate was in Greece (16.5 per cent).
Figures posted by Eurostat showed that in 2021, the mean age at which a woman in Bulgaria gave birth for the first time was 27.9, compared with an EU average of 31.1.
In 2021, Bulgaria’s crude marriage rate – meaning the ratio of the number of marriages during the year to the average population in that year, expressed per 1000 inhabitants – was 3.9, precisely the same as the EU average. In Bulgaria and in the EU, marriage rates have been declining steadily in recent years, going by figures posted by Eurostat.
Bulgaria’s crude divorce rate – similarly, the ratio of the number of divorces during the year to the average population in that year, expressed per 1000 inhabitants – was 1.5 in 2021, below the EU average of 1.7, according to Eurostat.
(Photo: Hu Chen/unsplash)
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