Increase in the divorce rates in Slovakia, rural - urban differences

Karol Pastor, Comenius University Bratislava

Before 1990, Slovakia belonged among the European countries with relative high marriage and low divorce rates. Nowadays it belongs among the European average from this aspect. Although the number of new marriages is less, the number of divorces grows both in absolute and relative figures. The crude divorce rate fluctuates about 2.4 per mille and the divorce ratio has doubled to 46 %. The aim of the paper is to investigate more details about this increase. In the past, marriages in Slovakian rural areas were traditionally more stable. Since 1990, it has been changed. This paper (based on official data) shows, how the divorce rates have developed in rural and urban areas and how rapid their growth is in the country. This reflects the present convergence processes between towns and villages. Another indicator of stability is the duration of the marriage. Nowadays, the risk of dissolution is growing for all ages but more for the older marriages, what results in increasing mean marriage duration. The risk of marriage dissolution was higher in urban regions for any duration of marriage, now it is rising, but in rural areas more rapidly as in urban ones. The paper deals with other risk factors, too, as the marriage age and the probability of divorce within the first 10 years after marriage. As the recent studies show, the probability of divorce is changing, too. It has grown most radically for the young adults, e.g. for those age groups, for which it was very low in the past. The risk of divorce grew at most for the mental cohort of those, who matured after 1990.