Puzzling Regional Factors of Divorce: the Case of Postcommunist Czechia and Slovakia

Abstract The factors influencing divorce remain a relatively under-researched area within (geo)demographic and sociological studies. This study extends the scope of inquiry by conducting a comprehensive examination of the divorce process. We demonstrate the possible way to discover (regional) factors of family dissolution using geostatistical methods, in addition to a demographical approach. In terms of the research background, a comparative perspective is essential. Here, we bring quite a pioneering view. For decades, the two countries involved, Czechia and Slovakia, shared the same legal environment within one state (Czechoslovakia) with a socialist regime. At the same time, many demographic, social, cultural, and religious dissimilarities existed between them. Through a multidimensional analysis, we aim to identify the influence of different groups of divorce factors at the level of local administrative units (LAU 1) during two transformation stages, specifically in three time series: at the beginning of the postsocialist transformation, at the turn of the millennium in 2001, and in 2011. We bring new empirical evidence and underline the role of geographical methods when discovering the time and space patterns of divorce. The most important finding is that regional differences are mostly induced by factors associated with religion, reproductive behavior, economic activity, education, and marital behavior. However, the explainability of regional factors after two decades of societal transformation is lower.