ECONOMIC FACTORS CORRELATED WITH MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE RATES IN EUROPEAN UNION COUNTRIES

The present study addresses the issue of delayed marriages and instability of marriages, measured by the rate of marriages and the divorce rate at the national level, respectively. The aim of the article is to analyse the extent to which they are correlated with factors of economic development: the employment rate, the level of development, the growth rate of people employed in the field of ICT, and the risk of poverty. We took into account data from 20 EU countries for the period 2008-2019, provided by Eurostat. The empirical analysis of the data proves a direct relationship between the divorce, respectively, the marriage rate and the indicators of economic development taken into account, with different values for different countries. The results obtained can support policy makers when setting development directions and social policies for the protection of multiple forms of family outside the social institution of marriage.