Family and Fertility Survey (FFS)

The data from the Family and Fertility Survey (FFS) originated in 1992, when Germany had been unified for only a short time. The study focused on relationship and family developments of then 20 to 39-year-olds in the former East and West Germany.

The German FFS was conducted in 1992 at a time when there were distinctly divergent reproductive patterns in the two parts of recently unified Germany. In the former West Germany, the falling birth rate had already bottomed out in the mid-1970s. Since then, the marriage and birth frequencies, at least at first glance, had levelled off at a steady, low level. A similar pattern is seen for marriage trends – approximately one quarter to one third of all single individuals remain unmarried. These are low rates, although not the lowest in a worldwide comparison of low-fertility countries.

In the former East Germany, by contrast, the patterns of family formation common in the GDR had dissolved. First marriages, the birth of children, divorces and remarriages were delayed, if they occured at all. In 1992, the combined birth rate reached only 822 children per 1,000 women, the first marriage tendency was only 50 percent of the level observed in the former West Germany and the divorce tendency had decreased in “Divorceland GDR” to 7.5 percent.

One main focus of the FFS was the retrospective survey of the intimate relationships and family developments of the 20 to 39-year-old men and women surveyed in the former West and East Germany in 1992. The information acquired was correlated with the educational and employment biographies as well as the residential biographies of the respondents. According to the design of the study, the focus was on the description and interpretation of differences by age and differences between the former West Germany and the former East Germany. In addition, some questions are included that allow for comparisons with the Population Policy Acceptance Study (PPAS), which was conducted eleven years later. Further to this, the FFS can be considered the precursor of the Generations and Gender Survey (GGS).

The data of the Family and Fertility Survey can be accessed at GESIS under the study number ZA3400.