Every year fewer marriages and more divorces are recorded in Serbia. This is indicated by the latest demographic statistics for 2018, published by the State Statistical Office. In 2018, 36,321 marriages and 9,995 divorces were registered, while, only four years earlier, there were 100 more marriages and 3,300 fewer divorces.
Couples who separate are mostly childless or with only one child, have been together for more than five years, are between 40 and 45 years old and have at least a high school diploma. It is interesting to note that, in the last 10 years, the number of divorces has doubled.
Statistics also show that Serbs are getting married later and later (men, on average at 34 years old, and women at 31), and that women also have children later in life.
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In the middle of the last century, it was almost a rule of thumb that women gave birth at least between the ages 20 and 30, and most often at the age of 25. Now, most give birth between the ages 30 and 34. The average age of a mother is 30, whereas at the beginning of the millennium, it was about 26.
Interestingly, in 2018, 17,130 children were born out of wedlock, which represents about 26% of the total number of births. This is still lower than in the rest of Europe, where the numbers vary between one third and half of total births.
The growth of common-in-law marriages and divorces is predictable, experts say. The reasons for divorce are now not primarily of financial nature. Proof of this can be found in the 1990s, when the economic crisis brought people together even when the family was not working, due to reduced spending.
(Vecernje Novosti, 21.01.2020)
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