In Slovakia, similarly as in the most countries, both fertility and nuptiality has been radically declined in the recent decades. In the same time, the number of children born outside the marriage has grown both in relative and absolute figures (from 7 % in 1990 to today’s 39 %). Despite of it, as the paper shows, the close link between marriage and fertility persists, at least in the framework of the Slovak population. The study is based on empirical data collected by Slovak Statistical Office.

The most considerable changes in fertility and nuptiality occur in the period 1990 – 2000. The age-specific fertility rates dropped in all relevant age groups for women in a whole, although these rates for both married and unmarried women staid essentially unchanged. What has changed, is the ratio of married women among all women. Thus, the decrease in fertility is mainly a result of decrease in nuptiality.

The corresponding statistical characteristics of fertility and nuptiality, respectively, are developing in time very similarly and they are strongly correlated (total rates, mean age, variability). This holds particularly for time series of first births and first marriages of women, which are almost identical. Moreover, the patterns of age-specific rates have changed radically (in parameters), but for these two processes very similarly. The empirical data can be very well fitted by the same models (e.g. lognormal, Hadwiger, Coal-McNeil) with almost equal parameters for both these processes.

Although this close link between fertility and nuptiality may eventually weaken with time, prognoses made by these models suggest that it will persist in near future, as well.

This research was supported by the grant VEGA 2/0047/15.