Sociologie Românească (Jul 2012)
Cine (mai) naşte în România?
Abstract
Our work is based on an analysis of data on all births in Romania during 2006-2010 and attempts to draw some major types of situations in which the mothers of children there are born in those previous five years. Based on information from official records made at birth, we were able to build a total of five categories of mothers, using as criteria occupation, schooling and environment (urban or rural) in which they live. Validity of the distinctions between these categories results from their relationship with other factors not included in the classification, i.e. the fact that the five classes differ after many other relevant indicators, such as extramarital birth weight, mean age at birth, state the child’ father, ethnicity and so on. The practical importance of the study is that, based on different profiles of types found, we can imagine different policies for supporting birth rates, with appropriate solutions to each of these situations. Or, on the contrary, we will prove that a single measure is not appropriate for all women or couples. We also mention that special attention must be paid to extramarital births, demonstrating one again that this phenomenon takes in Romania very different forms than in Western (especially in the Northern) countries.
