Fertility of Moldova’s female population is on the decline

The fertility of female population in Moldova is on the decline. The results of the 2004 census have confirmed that the fertile contingent – women aged 15-49 years – count for 64.8 percent of the total number of women, compared with 65.3 percent in 1989. Answering questionnaires of the census, every 4th woman said that she did not give birth to any baby, 20.2 percent of women gave birth to one child, 30.3 percent of women gave birth to 2 children, 13.2 percent to 3 children, 4.9 percent to 4 children, and 5.4 percent of women gave birth to at least 5 children. Statistics for 15 years between both censuses conducted in Moldova demonstrate that the share of women who did not give birth has grown by 3.4 percentage points, the share of women who gave birth to one child rose by 0.5 percentage points, while the share of women who gave birth to 2 and 3 children has increased by 1.5 and 0.2 percentage points. The share of women who gave birth to 4 or 5 children and more has increased by 1.0 and 4.5 percentage points. At the same time, the fertility phenomenon is different in cities and villages. If the average number of living new-borns per 1,000 women was 1,720 at country level, this indicator was 1.6 times higher in villages than in cities. The structure after civil status reveals that married persons count for 58.5 percent of the total of population aged 15 years and over, while in 1989 they held 68.5 percent. At the same time, unmarried people held 25.9 percent in 2004 or by 8.0 percent more than at the precedent census; widows held 10.1 percent, compared with 9.8 percent, divorced - 5.4 percent, compared with 4.4 percent in 1989. Divorced women were 2-fold more in 2004 than divorced men, while female widows were 3.8-fold more than male widows. Both unmarried and divorced men and women in cities held a higher share than in villages, respectively men – by 5.6 and 2.5 percentage points and women – 9.3 and 6.2 percentage points. Married persons and widows in rural regions held a higher share than in cities, Overall, 801,000 persons were interviewed and 58,000 of them said that they are informally married and 68.7 percent were residing villages.