Demographic Transition of Three Populations in Two Countries – The Population of Romania and Hungary Compared *

E-mail: [email protected] The main goal of our study is to describe and to interpret the selected features of demographic behaviour after the regime change. We compare two countries and three populations – the Hungarians in Hungary, the Romanian population, and the Hungarian population living in Transylvania. We are interested in similarities and differences in fertility trends, partnership behaviour, such as marriage, cohabitation, and divorce. Dissimilarities in the social changes and economic development are also outlined. We focus on structure versus culture since the Hungarian population lives within the Romanian institutional settings and under Romanian socio-economic circumstances but, at the same time, they have strong cultural ties with Hungary too. Using vital statistics, we are able to show that the trends of fertility behaviour of the Hungarians in Transylvania is closely related to the Romanian general tendencies, however, several deviations can be also identified. Our study serves as a first step in examining the comparison between Romania and Hungary together with the behaviour of ethnic minorities.