Who prefers marriage?

Pirjo Paajanen, The Population Research Institute
Anneli Miettinen, The Population Research Institute

In all over Europe, younger generations are marrying less and at older ages. Female total first marriage rates have declined from around 1.00 in 1960 to around 0.55-0.60 in most European countries. Some of the decline is related to the rise of cohabitation, as well as to shift from traditional values to individualism and increased women’s opportunities in the fields of education and work. We examine what kinds of people prefer marriage to cohabitation or other forms of partnership, and how these preferences are related to age, education, gender, present living arrangement, income, religiousness, and country. We also look at what reasons young adults themselves see for marriage postponement or renouncement. Study uses survey data from 8 European countries (Estonia, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Slovenia, IPPAS Database), collected 2000-2003. We focus on living arrangement preferences among 20-40-year-old men and women and factors related to these preferences. Main method: logistic regression.