Recent Change in Family Behavior in Poland: The Emergence of Cohabitation before and after the Transition of 1989

Margarete C. Kulik, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research

With the transition of the 1990s in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe the demographic behavior of their populations has changed drastically. This paper examines the development of cohabitation in Poland. The focus lies on the characteristics of the very select group of individuals who chose to cohabit. Poland differs from many other post-communist countries because of its strong Catholic tradition. Therefore, non-traditional family forms like cohabitation do not spread as widely as expected even when economic, political and social circumstances are changing. In addition to some descriptive statistics we apply event history analysis because this allows us to study the impact of individual-level characteristics on these developments. The data used are the Polish Fertility and Family Survey 1991 and some more recent census data. The analysis shows that factors like residence, cohort or education influence union type and fertility.