"This study aims at a characterisation of the demographic situation of the individual countries and makes an attempt at their classification. In order to establish the value of the differences in social and economic development from a demographic aspect, and to provide a contrast with central Europe, we have also included Hungary in our figures. The basic demographic indices are studied, including the birth rate coefficient, total fertility coefficient, mortality coefficient and infant mortality. Mortality per age is summarised in the synthetic index of longevity by gender and the average life span of live births (Campbell, 1977). Age structure is analysed separately as it influences birth rate and mortality via the population's reproductive capabilities. In order to provide maximum comparability between individual countries and to show their demographic development at the turn of the next century, the indices mentioned refer to particular milestone years: 1983, 1990 and 1997. The first one, 1983, is before the transition to the market economy; the second, 1990, is taken conventionally as the beginning of the transition; whereas the third, 1997, is the last one for which we have data available for the majority of cases. In this way, a term of fifteen years is studied, the first half being before the transition to the market economy and the second referring to the period during the transition."

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