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Annual variations are often more brutal for nuptiality than they are for other demographic phenomena. Short-term economic movements, in particular, seem to have a more direct impact. In the long run, however, nuptiality is generally considered as a much more stable factor than, say, fertility which has undergone profound changes in all industrialized countries over the past hundred years. In this article the social scientists will attempt to study these recent trends in the light of longer-term ones, by comparing nuptiality movements in four countries: Canada, the United States, Australia and New Zealand. In this paper, they study the nuptiality of birth cohorts by calculating the proportion ever-married at age 50, and mean age at first marriage. Data are not always strictly comparable between one census and another, especially in Canada and the United States where geographical coverage has varied through time. However, the numbers involved were small. Moreover, the definition of marital status has not been changed, at least not the basic distinction between single and ever-married. Through a study of nuptiality trends for the single for about a hundred different birth cohorts, they will attempt to determine whether attitudes towards marriage have changed. But first, they must eliminate the structural effects which affect the phenomenon studied. For instance, marriage becomes more difficult for women and female nuptiality decreases when there is a scarcity of potential male partners.

The article deals with the recent widespread increase in marriage rates in the Western world. A convenient method of studying aspects of the recent history of marriage is provided by easily available data regarding the proportion of single persons at various dates. The article uses these data to disentangle two effects in the marriage boom: the extent to which the cohorts whose marriages have formed the main contribution to the marriage boom are marrying more, i.e. whether the proportion who will ultimately remain single is likely to be lower than in previous generations, the extent to which the mean age at marriage of these generations is likely to fall below that of their predecessors. The raw material for the computations to be presented consists of the proportions single at two recent dates for each of thirteen countries used in the study. The countries included in the study are Czechoslovakia, Denmark, England and Wales, France, Ireland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, Australia, New Zealand, and the U.S. The study from the proportion single shows that both reduction in the age at marriage and an increase in the proportion marrying at least once in the course of their lives is occurring in several countries.

Discusses the problems with the economic integration between Australia and New Zealand. Information on the economic condition of both countries; Manufacturing output of New Zealand; Values of the market distance index of the two country; Trade flows and manufacturing structure.

This article informs that with the acceptance of a technique comes an opportunity to use it for making cross-cultural comparisons. There are now reports available of two Australian studies using the "Day at Home Questionnaire." The primary hypothesis underlying the present study is that there are no differences between the '"Day at Home" material from Australia and New Zealand. With a testing of this hypothesis as the main purpose, a description of the normal family patterns in Wellington, New Zealand, was also attempted. The Wellington sample is comparable both with the Melbourne sample and the Perth state school sample. The questionnaire asks about family decision making, action, and tension in 31 areas of family life. Being designed to obtain information about family structure from children, the 31 areas cover characteristic activities of a child's day at home. It should be stressed that the answers are those of children and thus reflect their knowledge of family behaviour. Whether the questionnaire can give useful or significant information about family structure in a particular culture will depend to a large extent on more general characteristics of that culture, and particularly on whether many second order decisions are made.