Cohabitation, an alternative for marriage in contemporary Romania: A life table description

The abundance of data collected in Romania by the Generations and Gender Survey in 2005 provides the first occasion for a closer look at family-related behavioural changes in this country. Besides marriage, birth, divorce, and similar data collected in vital statistics, now we can look at entry into, exit from, and childbirth within alternative (to marriage) forms of union such as cohabitation. All these family events are interesting to study in the emerging development of the Second Demographic Transition in Romania (Mureºan 2007a). The present life table analysis may be a valuable starting point for a deeper investigation of family dynamic determinants. So far, due to the lack of adequate data, no such analysis could be made for Romania.Marriage, Divorce, Childbearnig, Cohabitation, Romania, Partnership forms, First birth, Family behaviou