YEARBOOK OF POPULATION RESEARCH IN FINLAND

Finland (Helsinki) 44

1994-1995 - VOLUME 32

96.44.1 - English - Jarl LINDGREN, The Population Research Institute of VŠestšliitto, The Family Federation of Finland, Helsinki (Finland) Family formation and structure in Finland (p. 5-18)

The article is an overview of the changes in family formation and structure in Finland during the last few decades. The period examined extends from the 1950s until the beginning of the 1990s with the emphasis on the current situation. The article starts with a look on the changes in union establishment and shows that, on the whole, the age at starting the union has been unchanged if one takes into consideration that a union today starts with premarital cohabitation. There are more divorces than earlier. The dissolution frequency is higher among consensual unions than in marriages. The most common type of family is a family consisting of married parents with children. Living in marriage has decreased among young persons while consensual unions have become more common. The proportion of one-parent families has been almost unchanged during the last two decades. In the 1990s there has been a weak tendency to a growing proportion of families with three children. The most apparent trend during the following decades will be the rapidly growing number of families without children. (FINLAND, FAMILY FORMATION, CONSENSUAL UNION, MARRIAGE, DIVORCE)

96.44.2 - English - Irma-Leena NOTKOLA, Department of Community Health and General Practice, University of Kuopio, Kuopio (Finland) Cohort fertility changes and period fertility in 1960-1990 in Finland (p. 19-31)

In Finland, like in most European countries, the total fertility rate declined from a level of 2,5 births per woman in the middle of the 1960s below the replacement level of 2.1 births during the late sixties. This change has been called Europe's second demographic transition. This paper aims to describe the changes in cohort fertility during and after this transition. The cohorts whose fertility is examined include the cohorts of women born between 1923-24 and 1961-62. The cohort fertility data are from unpublished tables of Statistics Finland. Total fertility decreased from 2.6 births per woman in the cohort 1923-24 to the level of 1.8-1.9 births per woman in the cohorts 1943-44 and has stayed at this level in younger cohorts. The most prominent change in fertility behavior in recent years has been delaying births later in life. This transformation has been going on since the cohorts born in the middle of the 1940s. In calendar time this transformation started in the late sixties which suggests that the new contraception methods played an important role in it. Cohort fertility results are used in interpreting period fertility trends and variability in the last decades. (FINLAND, FERTILITY DECLINE, FEMALE GENERATIONS, TOTAL FERTILITY RATE)

96.44.3 - English - Seppo KOSKINEN, Pekka MARTIKAINEN, Tuija MARTELIN and Tapani VALKONEN, Population Research Unit, Department of Sociology, University of Helsinki, Helsinki (Finland)

Convergence of lifestyles and trends in the sex mortality ratio among the middle-aged in Finland (p. 32-44)

Male excess mortality has increased rapidly during this century. A hypothesis has been brought forth, however, that the growing equality of the sexes and the concomitantly increasing similarity of lifestyles, result in a convergence of female and male mortality. In addition, it can be assumed that this process is most evident in those "modern" population groups which can be considered forerunners in adopting new behavior patterns, e.g. among the young with higher education or living in the capital region. This article examines the plausibility of these hypotheses among the Finnish middle-aged population during the period 1971-85. (FINLAND, EXCESS MORTALITY, SEX DIFFERENTIALS, LIFE STYLES)

96.44.4 - English - Jaakko IGNATIUS, Department of Medical Genetics, VŠestšliitto, The Family Federation of Finland, Helsinki (Finland) Consanguineous marriages in Finland and their implications for genetic disease (p. 45-53)

The frequency of marriages contracted between individuals with close consanguinity has traditionally been low in Finland. In the 19th and early 20th centuries only 0.1-0.3% of all marriages were contracted between first-cousins (average kinship coefficient 0.0001-0.0002). In genealogical search, however, a remote consanguinity (often beyond 3rd cousins) is frequently found especially in the rural areas and the true level of inbreeding is higher. In Finland, several autosomal recessive diseases are known to be enriched in the population. This unique spectrum of genetic diseases is sometimes called "the Finnish Disease Heritage". To study the implication of close consanguinity for these disorders, information on consanguineous marriages closer than second-cousins was collected from 808 families representing 24 different "Finnish" autosomal recessive disorders. The mean rate of first-cousin marriages was 1.6% (0-20%). Consanguinity (parents second-cousins or closer) was found in 4.2% of the families. For comparison, in 160 families representing three "non-Finnish" autosomal disorders the corresponding figures were 1.9% and 2.5%, respectively. Although these figures are high when compared to the general Finnish population, it can be concluded that close consanguinity is not a significant factor of Finnish genetic diseases. (FINLAND, POPULATION GENETICS, CONSANGUINEOUS MARRIAGE, GENETIC DISEASES)

96.44.5 - English - Helka HYTTI, The Social Insurance Institution, Helsinki (Finland) Determinants of disability pension incidence (p. 54-69)

The study looked at the incidence of disability pensions among Finnish manual workers aged 40-59 in the years 1972-1985. The material consisted of individual level files combining census data with data on pensions and causes of death. Background factors influencing the incidence of pensions were investigated by comparing the tendency to seek and retire on a pension with changes in mortality, the employment situation and the replacement rate of social insurance benefits. The variation in the incidence of disability pensions could partly be attributed to an improvement in the population's health status, mainly the decreasing severity of circulatory diseases, and partly to employment and social security trends. Changes in the levels of pension and sickness benefits had a major impact on the incidence of pensions. The effects of economic recession were seen to vary with the worker's status in the labor market. (FINLAND, DISABILITY, SOCIAL SECURITY, ECONOMIC DEMOGRAPHY)

96.44.6 - English - Airi PAJUNEN, Veijo NOTKOLA, Department of Sociology, University of Helsinki, Helsinki (Finland), and PŠivi LEINO-ARJAS, LEL Employment Pension Fund, Helsinki (Finland)

Disability by occupation in Finland 1986-1990 (p. 70-79)

The present paper describes differences in the standardized disability ratio between occupations in Finland in 1986-1990. Furthermore, it gives an overview of the relationship between occupational disability and mortality. The data are based on the 1985 census records in Finland linked with all disability pensions during the period 1986-1990. The study includes the entire male and female labor force aged 25-54 years in 1985. An indirect standardization method was used to calculate the standardized disability ratio for each occupation. Results indicated clear differences in disability by occupations for both men and women. Among both sexes, the manual workers occupations had higher standardized disability ratios and white-collar occupations had lower ratios than the entire labor force. The disability of male occupations correlated strongly with occupational mortality, whereas among women the correlation between mortality and disability was weaker. (FINLAND, DISABILITY, SEX DIFFERENTIALS, OCCUPATIONS, DIFFERENTIAL MORTALITY)

96.44.7 - English - Heikki ERVASTI, Department of Social Policy, University of Turku, Turku (Finland)

Bringing the family back in? Attitudes towards the role of the family in caring for the elderly and children? (p. 80-95)

In the last few years, demands for replacing the welfare state with family responsibility for the care of children and the elderly have become more and more insistent. Using data from a recent postal survey (N = 1,737), the article's aim is to estimate the caring possibilities and caring potential of the family. The results show that compared to outside-home care and especially publicly provided outside-home care, family care is not supported by public opinion. However, the results provide no evidence of a decline in the caregiving potential of the family. Thus, the introduction of new family care-oriented policies and cuts in the public welfare services aimed at increasing family responsibility for the care of dependants could even be counterproductive, as families would soon be overloaded with caring tasks. (FINLAND, SOCIAL SECURITY, DEPENDENCY BURDEN)

96.44.8 - English - Riikka RAITIS, Department of Sociology, University of Helsinki, Helsinki (Finland) Fertility in the Northwest region of Namibia (p. 106-117)

The aim of this paper is to examine fertility in the Northwest Region of Namibia and the effects the principal proximate determinants have on fertility. The main data sources are the 1991 Population and Housing Census and the Namibia Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS) 1992. Indirect methods are used to estimate fertility, the Crude Birth Rate (CBR) and mortality on the basis of the census data and direct methods to calculate fertility from retrospective birth histories of NDHS data. The level of fertility is higher in the Northwest Region than in other regions of the country. The first principal proximate determinant, the marriage pattern, seems to sustain high fertility in the Northwest Region compared to the South and Central Regions, but not in respect to the Northeast Region. Postpartum insusceptibility is longer in the Northwest Region than in Namibia on average, but shorter than in the Northeast Region. The use of contraceptives is exceptionally low in the Northwest Region compared to the other regions. The ideal number of children is highest in the Northwest Region. The levels of infant and child mortality are relatively low in the Northwest Region and in Namibia on average. (NAMIBIA, REGIONS, FERTILITY, FERTILITY DETERMINANTS, COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS)

96.44.9 - English - Marie REIJO, Academy of Finland, Helsinki (Finland)

Recent population development and population projections up to 2010 in Nepal (p. 118-130)

This article describes the recent population development in Nepal and projects alternative population development trends to the year 2010 using the cohort component model. Projections are based on the assumptions of future fertility, mortality and migration which have been derived from assumed socioeconomic and environmental development and population policy development. The relatively rapid population growth will continue mostly because of high natural increase. Population growth can be delayed most efficiently by decreasing fertility to the replacement level and by decreasing mortality further. (NEPAL, POPULATION GROWTH, POPULATION PROJECTIONS)

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