Family and society have witnessed radical changes in recent years. From the emergence of the “sandwich generation” that supports both their children and older parents, to the increase in the number of couples who (for professional or personal reasons) have decided not to have children, or to the increase in single-parent families. And these are not the only major changes.

Laura Ionescu is a single mother raising her 15-year-old child. On the one hand, she feels obligated to take care of her 80-year-old mother, who suffers from a mobility deficit, just as she feels obligated to provide her son with a good education. She brought her mother to Bucharest to be together so she could take better care of her. But not always everything goes as you want.

One evening, Laura tried to play a board game with her son, involving the boy’s grandmother. But Laura’s mother fought even more, and the boy was not very happy with the way the game was going, so the family stopped playing together. Laura is a typical representative of the sandwich generation, which is growing with increasing life expectancy.

Other changes we’re seeing include:

• The growth of “transnational families” where partners live in different countries (one or even both parents work abroad)

• The normalization of divorces and an increase in the number of couples who prefer the civil partnership of marriage

• A consistent transition to smaller families than the previous generation

• Declining fertility and birth rates

These trends reflect societal changes driven by factors such as urbanization, migration, technological progress, and the evolution of social norms.

According to Eurostat, the number of childless families in Romania increased by approximately 250,000 families. This trend is present in almost all of Europe, the champion is Malta (more than 40% growth of families without children in the last 10 years), followed by Cyprus, Luxembourg or Ireland.

Also, the number of families with 3 children is decreasing in our country (from more than 250,000 families to about 210,000 families), and the share of young people aged 18-38 living with their parents has also decreased, from more than 60% to 53% in the last 10 years. In the Scandinavian countries, this share does not exceed 16%, while in Portugal, Slovakia, Greece, Croatia and Montenegro, the share of young people living with their parents exceeds 70%

Over the past 25 years, the average age of a mother at first birth has increased from 22 to almost 28 years.

The birth rate fell from 13.6 live births per 1,000 inhabitants to just over 8 live births per 1,000 inhabitants.

If we take into account the data for Bucharest, we see that over the last 25 years the number of women who became mothers over the age of 30-40 has increased 6 times, and the number of mothers over 40 has increased 5 times compared to 25 years ago .

Changes are consistent and aimed at:

The family structure is changing: Most modern families have nothing in common with those of 50 years ago, when the man brought money to the house, and the woman was the mother and housewife. According to the data provided by the statistics, the phenomenon of cohabitation – as the number of couples who prefer a partnership in marriage – has a significant increase immediately after the period of secondary school education, around the age of 20 and the average age of marriage (28-29 years) and a significant decrease after 50 years.

“Young people aged 20-24 have delayed or are delaying marriage, preferring to enter into a consensual relationship. They have this kind of relationship of consensual union or concubinage, as it was called in the past. It is certain that he is postponing his marriage for very different reasons,” Professor of Sociology Maria Voinea, a specialist in the sociology of the family, explains to HotNews.ro.

“Women first want to make a career, realize themselves professionally. Secondly, women want to experience more social statuses, more roles, avoiding entering too early into the relationship of wife and mother. Therefore, they postpone both marriage and the conception of the first child. This leads to the fact that the age of marriage exceeds 30 years, and sometimes children appear at around 34-35 years old,” says Professor Maria Voynya.

According to Census data reported by the INS, the number of women who prefer a marital partnership (common-law union, cohabitation, cohabitation) is on the rise. It is interesting that in rural areas (where traditions are considered stronger) the number of marriage unions is higher than in cities.

The trajectory of life changes. The time to create a traditional family is delayed, as is the birth of the first child. Many mothers prefer to have a child before getting married, and marriage does not necessarily involve the same partner with whom they have a child.

The roles in the pair change. The increase in mothers’ employment has been accompanied by an increase in the time fathers spend with their children, creating new roles for parents and everyone involved in children’s lives. These changes in the roles performed by partners in the family reflect the expansion of educational and professional opportunities for women and greater gender equality in families. Parents are expected to play an active role in raising their children—and usually do—to a much greater extent than they did half a century ago.

Fertility patterns are changing. This is also related to some economic factors, but also to trends that are manifested in society. While lower class parents used to send their children to work as soon as possible because they needed money for daily living, today all parents want their children to become doctors, lawyers, doctors or engineers. No one wants their child to be a welder or a refrigerator, although the salaries in these fields are very good and specialists are highly valued. In recent years, the focus has shifted to the profession of psychologist or psychotherapist, where places at specialized faculties are full.

And sometimes upbringing and a good education given to children is quite expensive. In the UK, according to statistics, the average is £3,760 per year (€4,400) per child. By the age of 18, the amount is around £68,000 (€80,000). Therefore, British couples may choose to have fewer children.

The cost of raising a child in Romania is 384,991 lei; The cost of raising a second child is 257,625 lei

Raising children, although difficult, is pleasant. However, it can be very expensive when you sit down and do the math, Clubulcopiilor.ro shows

Clubulcopiilor.ro conducted a study aimed at estimating the minimum costs required to raise a child from birth to 19 years (until high school graduation) in an urban family.

The total cost of raising a child born in 2024, taking into account the level of inflation, is estimated at 594,070 lei for the first child and 417,989 lei for the second child. Therefore, parents who want to have 2 children will need at least 1 million lei to raise them until they finish high school.

The costs of raising a child have long been a subject of great interest for scientific research, both for parents and future parents, says academician Vasile Getseu. Really difficult.

“However, this industry is extremely complex, requiring extensive and highly detailed data, which may explain the rarity of costing and completion exercises. The costs of raising a child have increased over time due to the inclusion of new components and changes in the consumption and prices of goods and services. This is cited as one factor in the decline in birth rates over time due to child abandonment or preference for an only child. We do not have estimates of the cost of raising a child in our country, but a look at its level and structure in other countries gives us a lot of information and data that is of real interest, and some simple comparative thinking can take place. , – sums up the well-known Romanian demographer.