Life-table representations of family dynamics in 16 FFS countries

In this paper, we apply a system of description of family-demographic behavior to data derived from a number of Fertility and Family Surveys (FFS) conducted in Europe - and to corresponding survey data from the USA. We use life-table techniques in order to describe the experiences of men, women, and children in processes related to family formation and family dissolution during the late 1980s -early 1990s. Our presentation amounts to a large number of cross-country comparisons of the demographic behavior in Eastern and Western Europe with the US used as a contrast. Our system is described in more detail in Andersson and Philipov (2001) and here we apply it to data from Sweden, Norway, Finland, France, USA, Austria, Germany (East and West Germany separately), Flanders, Italy, Spain, Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovenia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland. (AUTHORS)