Extramarital births

Extramarital births

The proportion of children born outside marriage is rising in all EU countries, North America, and Australia.^[13] In Europe, besides the low levels of fertility rates and the delay of motherhood, another factor that now characterizes fertility is the growing percentage of live births outside marriage. In the EU, this phenomenon has been on the rise in recent years in almost every country; and in seven countries, mostly in northern Europe, it already accounts for the majority of live births.^[14]

In 2009, 41% of children born in the United States were born to unmarried mothers (up from 5% a half century ago). That includes 73% of non-Hispanic black children, 53% of Hispanic children (of all races), and 29% of non-Hispanic white children.^[15][16] In April 2009, the National Center for Health Statistics announced that nearly 40 percent of American infants born in 2007 were born to an unwed mother; that of 4.3 million children, 1.7 million were born to unmarried parents, a 25 percent increase from 2002.^[17] The percentage born extramaritally increased 21% during 2002–7, reaching 1,714,643 in 2007 (or nearly 4 in 10 U.S. births).^[12] Most births to teenagers in the USA (86% in 2007) are nonmarital; in 2007, 60% of births to women 20–24, and nearly one-third of births to women 25–29, were nonmarital.^[12] In 2007, teenagers accounted for just 23% of nonmarital births, down steeply from 50% in 1970.^[12]

In 2011, 39.5% of all births in the 27 EU countries were extramarital. In that year, births outside marriage represented a majority in Iceland (65.0%), Estonia (59.7%), Slovenia (56.8%), Bulgaria (56.1%), France (55.8%), Norway (55.0%), Sweden (54.3%), and Belgium (50%). The proportion of extramarital births is also approaching half in Denmark (49%), the United Kingdom (47.3%) and the Netherlands (45.3%).^[18] Other European countries with a high rate of extramarital births for the year 2011 are Latvia (44.6%), Hungary (42.3%), Czech Republic (41.8%), Finland (40.9%), Austria (40.4%), Luxembourg (34.1%), Slovakia (34.0%), Germany (33.5%).^[19] The lowest proportion of births outside marriage was found in Greece (7.4%) and Cyprus (16.9%).^[18]

In the EU, the average percentage of extramarital births has risen steadily in recent years, from 27.4% in 2000 to 39.5% in 2011.^[18]

It is notable that traditionally-conservative Catholic countries now also have substantial proportions of extramarital births: e.g., Portugal, 45.6% (in 2012);^[20] Spain, 37.4% (in 2011); Ireland, 33.7% (in 2011); Italy, 23.4% (in 2011).^[18]

The percentage of first-born children born out of wedlock is considerably higher (by roughly 10%, for the EU), as marriage often takes place after the first baby has arrived.

Latin America has the highest rates of non-marital childbearing in the world (55–74% of all children in this region are born to unmarried parents).^[21] In most countries in this traditionally Catholic region, children born outside marriage are now the norm. Even in the early 1990s, the phenomenon was very common: in 1993, out-of-wedlock births in Mexico were 41.5%, in Chile 43.6%, in Puerto Rico 45.8%, in Costa Rica 48.2%. In other countries, they were the majority: in Argentina 52.7%, in Belize 58.1%, in El Salvador 73%, in Panama 80%.^[22][23]

Other traditionally Catholic countries have also been experiencing majority extramarital births: in 2007, Paraguay 70%, Dominican Republic 63%.^[23]

Out-of-wedlock births are less common in Asia: in 1993 the rate in Japan was 1.4%; in Israel, 3.1%; in China, 5.6%; in Uzbekistan, 6.4%; in Kazakhstan, 21%; in Kyrgyzstan, 24%.^[22]

 

The original link in wikpediai that this article is from can be found at:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legitimacy_(law)