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Fertility Surveys in Croatia

Croatia has been facing below-replacement fertility more than half a century, and a birth deficit nearly a quarter of a century. Only a few European countries exhibit similar trends. Fertility developments in Croatia thus require thorough scientific explanation. Contemporary fertility research in Europe very much relies on micro-level data. However, Croatia lacks high quality, probability sample, cross-nationally comparable, longitudinal micro-level data on fertility and family-related topics. Existing domestic surveys on fertility in Croatia have all used non-probability samples, which makes them inadequate for cross-national comparisons. These surveys have furthermore focused exclusively on either married (Fertility survey of married women in 2003) or employed (Women’s employment and fertility in 2007) women. Croatia did not participate in the Fertility and Family Survey (FFS), a multi-national, Europe- centred, comparative project, nor in the Population Policy Acceptance Study (PPAS), a cross-sectional survey on Europeans’ practices, attitudes, and opinions concerning demographic change, fertility behaviour, and population- related policies) during the 1990s. Including Croatia in a cross-national probability sample survey, where fertility is one the core research subjects, would help yield new understandings about low fertility determinants. New directions in fertility research nowadays rely on longitudinal and cross-national comparative data, while cross- sectional one-country studies are becoming obsolete. The most advanced such social science research infrastructure is the Generations and Gender Programme (GGP). Its central component, the Generations and Gender Survey (GGS), covers a broad array of topics relevant to demographers and other social scientists via a multidisciplinary questionnaire. In 2018, Croatia implemented the GGS as an experimental pilot study with a mixed-mode design. This was the first comparative fertility survey in Croatia that used probability sampling, mixed-mode approach, and unconditional cash incentive. We will present country-specific issues and challenges in implementing this kind of surveys.

Fertility surveys, multinational comparative surveys, GGP, Croatia

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