Age specifics of the occurrence of starting demographic events among Russian generations

The article presents comparisons of the ages and facts of the occurrence of starting demographic events, based on the results from three big surveys carried out in Russia: ‘European Social Survey’ - 2006, ‘Generations and Gender Survey’ - 2004, 2007, 2011, and ‘Human, Family, Society’ - 2013. The research was devoted to inter-generation and gender differences in the start of sexual debut, first partnership, marriage, and birth of the first child. Analysis of the obtained data shows that the maximum number of starting demographic events takes place at the age under 35. In the average biography the first event is start of sexual life, then follow matrimonial events, and the last event is birth of the first child. The greatest gender and generational differences are observed in matrimonial behavior: popularity of unregistered unions is much higher among the younger generations than among their predecessors, and their interest in marriage is much lower. Men enter into marriage and partnership about year or two later than women. In reproductive behavior there are more gender differences than generational: men are more inclined to postpone birth of a child. This is because women wish to give birth to the first child in the reproductively healthy age, and men prefer to postpone both getting the first child and entering the first marriage.