This article examines the changes in first union formation in the Baltic countries between the late 1960s and early 1990s, in the context of societal and family-level gender relations. The analyses are conducted using microdata from the European Family and Fertility Surveys program. Our results indicate that in Estonia and Latvia the shift from direct marriage to cohabitation started well before the fall of socialist regime. Event-history models provide support for a hypothesised association between union formation and gender systems, with Lithuania showing more traditional features in both respects, possibly due to long-standing cultural differences between the countries.
This article is about the experience of population-related policies in Estonia. During the recent decade much has been published on this theme, usually with an analysis of currently enforced regulations. Repeated amendments of legal norms and procedures, which are inevitable in a period of fundamental reforms, however, tend to limit their value quite rapidly. Against such a background, this paper applies a longer perspective with an attempt to cover the main stages and turning points in the development of population-related policies in the country since the establishment of statehood in 1918. In the interwar period, the efforts to build up a modern nation included setting up relevant institutions and regulations in the ? eld of population-related policies. These undertakings have been seldom discussed in the recent publications. Somewhat similarly, the postwar decades are frequently regarded as fairly distant and of little relevance to present challenges. To understand the developments, however, the longer view should not be neglected. Todays concerns are rooted in the arrangements and disarrangements of the past, and no less importantly, such continuity is strengthened by the nature of population development and the ? ow of cohorts which absorb the in? uences of the societal environment and carry them along through their lifetime. The article is structured in four sections focusing on the development of marriage and the family, children and fertility, the pension system and social welfare, and the health care system. In each section, the aim is to outline successive policy regimes and their main characteristics in terms of objectives and methods of regulations. Understandably, limited space does not allow coverage of minor changes and technicalities, so for more speci? c information the article provides further reference to various source materials.
The article addresses the transformation of fertility patterns in the Baltic countries since the turn of the 1990s, in the context of long-term trends. The purpose of the study is to compare the change in fertility level, parity distribution, timing of childbearing, and the connection between marriage and childbearing in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, and analyze the position of the Baltic countries in a broader European perspective. Our results indicate a salient role of tempo effects in the sharp decline of period fertility measures that occurred in the region in the 1990s. Tempo-adjusted measures indicate moderately low fertility levels of 1.6-1.7 children per woman in the region. In the recent years, fertility levels have been rising in all three countries with recuperation being more vigorous in Estonia and less so in Lithuania. Estonia and Latvia also appear more advanced in terms of the spread of childbearing among cohabiting couples, with the proportion of non-marital births comparable to Scandinavian countries. The article discusses the factors underlying the observed similarities and dissimilarities in fertility patterns, pointing to the plausible demographic path dependence.
The article focuses on the demographic development af the Ingrian minority in Estonia.In a broader framework the research underlying the article originates from acomparative study af national minority populations, coordinated by the EuropeanPopulation Committee. The article starts with a short overview af major changes inthe ethnic composition af the Estonian population, covering the implications af theSecond World War on national minorities and the emergence af aforeign-origin population.The analysis af the Ingrian minority draws on the data from the Estoniannational minority survey. Building on the life course approach and event history methodology,the survey was designed ta retrospectively reconstruct the trends in majordemographic processes and follow the continuity af minority-specific characteristicsacross three successive generations. The article discusses the size and age structureaf the Ingrian population, fertility and mortality patterns, ethnic intermarriage, languageand religious affiliation. The results emphasize that national minority populationstend ta follow distinct pathways af population development, which are different,from the patterns characteristic af the majority population as well asfrom those foundin the countries af historical origin. Also, the analysis clearly revealed long-termconsequences imposed by the loss af their homeland and their dispersal.
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