The study of the demographic situation and changes in population’s demographic behavior is a relevant topic of scientific research as it analyzes the successes and threats of demographic development of various territories, predicts the parameters of population reproduction, forms tools for improving socio-economic and demographic policies to achieve the most important goals of any level of governance – national conservation. One of the sources of information for monitoring the demographic situation in Russia is federal statistical observations on social and demographic problems. In 2012 and 2017, Rosstat conducted sample surveys of population’s reproductive plans, whose results are analyzed in the article. The purpose was to assess the changes in reproductive behavior and marriage patterns of the Russian population over the past 5 years.
To achieve the goal, the method of system-structural analysis was used, the application of which helped determine the predominant forms of marital relations, the motives to live together and register the relations, changes in the age of marriage and childbirth, the average preferred number of children, and birth calendar. It is concluded that marriage devaluation and common-law marriage legitimacy continue; the trends of population’s reproductive behavior are revealed: the focus on one child, increased marriage age and the age of mothers at birth, postponement of child birth and increased interval between births of the first and second child, increased prevalence of contraceptive practices in the first marriage before the birth of the first child.
The obtained data may be of practical interest to researchers in demography and sociology, representatives of authorities implementing demographic, family and social policy
Keywords
fertility, reproductive behavior, contraception, marriage patterns, common-law marriage, terms of marriage registration, mean age of the mother, interval between marriage and first birth