Bulgaria ranks after France and Slovenia when it comes to the number of children born outside marriage in the European Union.

According to Eurostat data, which compared this indicator between 2000 and 2018, on average for the community 42% of children were born outside marriage in 2018. Their share in 2000 was about 25%. Specifically for Bulgaria at the beginning of the new millennium, this share was nearly 40%, compared to 2018, when it jumped to 59%. For the EU, the rise between the two compared years is 17%, which is a signal for the emergence of a new type of family relations along with the traditionally existing ones, Eurostat commented.