The highest divorce rate in Europe: what’s happening to families in Ukraine

Today much is said about the crisis of the family institution. Young people no longer consider the family to be the intrinsic value of life. Demographers say fewer marriages are registered. Ukraine is the leader among European countries in the number of divorces. Not only young couples scatter in every direction, but also those who have many years of seemingly prosperous and stable married life behind them.

For centuries, marriage has been a necessary condition for survival, it has provided security and economic stability, legalized the birth of children, the "married" status guaranteed recognition, and more privileged positions in society. In the third millennium, all these functions are increasingly losing weight and people's views on the family and the institution of marriage are undergoing significant changes.

The family is no longer a survival strategy or a common economy. We can do all this alone. It's also not parenthood, you can be a parent without creating a "social unit." The family's reproductive function has declined many times over: if a couple now has three children (which was the "starting" figure 100-150 years ago), this family is already considered to be a multi-child family. The modern family doesn't mean common hobbies and interests, friends and like-minded people perfectly cope with this task.