Ethnic effect – structural effect? Fertility among Romany and non-Romany women with low educational level in Hungary

Ildikó Husz, Hungarian Academy of Sciences

Currently, the country-level total fertility rate is 1.32 in Hungary, but significant regional differences can be observed behind this figure. In Budapest, where fertility rate is the lowest, the TFR is around 1.0, while this value is 2.2 in the Northern region of Hungary. One might suspect significant ethnic differences behind the regional figures. The estimated live birth rate per 1,000 women of child-bearing age, is 102.2 for Romanies, whereas this proportion is just 38.2 at the national level. Some researchers debate the role of ethnic characteristics in the Romanies’s higher fertility claiming that it can be explained solely by their low structural position – above all their low educational level and hence their poor employment prospects. In order to separate the ethno-cultural and the socio-economic (structural) effects, recently we conducted a survey in Northern Hungary among lower educated, Romany and non-Romany women aged 15-49. The findings show that despite of their similar socio-economic status, the fertility and family establishment patterns of the Romanies and of the non-Romanies are significantly different. In the first ethnic group, the average number of children is higher in all age groups than in the second one. Among the Romanies, the first childbirth takes place almost 2 years earlier on the average than among the non-Romanies. The ages of first marriage or cohabitation also shows a differerence – 17.8 years for the first group and 19.5 years for the second one. The findings also indicate that there is not a homogeneous fertility pattern among the Romanies of the Northern region. Villages showing a high fertility do not form a continuous subregion, their location within the territory surveyed is rather sporadic.