Extramarital births in Poland and social policy

Piotr Szukalski
Wielisława Warzywoda-Kruszyńska, Institute of Sociology

Extramarital birth share in Poland almost tripled between 1988 and 2003. The highest share is seen not only in Polish big cities (according to expectation based on 2nd Demographic Transition theory) but in poor, affected with high unemployment regions. In our opinion poverty is the most important reason why young unemployed people prefer to live in cohabiting and especially LAT unions and stay to live in the unions despite their child delivery. According to statistical data on main sources of maintenance of unmarried mothers proportion of women living on unemployment benefits and other social benefits is growing. We try to prove that in the Polish case the economic deprivation is more important then mental changes and that 2DT is still not right to explain changes in extramarital fertility in Poland.