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According to censuses taken around 1960, the distinction between the 'European' pattern of late marriage and high proportions never married and the 'traditional' pattern of early and universal marriage remains generally valid for female populations in spite of trends toward convergence in the past few decades. Among male populations, however, the regional overlap is great. Variations in the timing and quantity of nuptiality in 57 countries in Europe, the Middle East, Asia and the English-speaking nations overseas are explained on the basis of variables measuring the desirability and feasibility of marriage. The conclusion is that marriage is becoming more feasible in the wealthier nations of the West and less feasible in many developing non-Western nations. Social and economic penalties of non-marriage are stronger in non-Western societies than in the West, and stronger for women than for men.

This paper attempts to estimate median age at marriage for Pakistan and its regions from census data. The choice of median age at marriage as the measure of central tendency for studying the patterns of nuptiality in Pakistan has been made to eliminate extremes and give a more accurate picture. In countries lacking adequate marriage registration data enumeration data by marital status obtained either by a census or a sample survey can be used to estimate the central tendency of age at marriage and to construct nuptiality tables. It has been noted that the almost universality of marriage for both the sexes in India and Pakistan is consistently shown by the very low proportion single at 45-54 in the series of Indian censuses. According to the 1961 census of Pakistan only .8% of the females and 2.5% of the males in the country had not married by age 50. The present study which also utilizes the census figures suggests that the age of females at marriage in Pakistan (15.5 years) is still quite young but is not as low as it was supposed previously; while the male age at marriage is roughly at the level of age at first marriage in the United States 23.1 years.

Summary This paper deals with the recent widespread increase in marriage rates in the Western world. The principal materials used are data on the proportions single in each age group at various times. These data are used to estimate how far the ‘marriage boom’ has reflected decreases in the proportions of persons remaining single throughout life or reductions in the age at marriage of those who do marry. The conclusion is that changes of both types have occurred; the mean age at marriage has been declining in several countries at a rate of more than one-tenth of a year per annum. A number of ancillary technical problems relating to the analysis of nuptiality are discussed.

There is a widespread belief that the adjective “Irish” is a general synonym for “unique”. The foundation for this belief is nowhere stronger than in the field of demography. During the past century, while the populations of the countries of Western Europe and of the British Dominions have been rising, that of the twenty-six counties which now constitute the Irish Republic has fallen from 6,529,000 in 1841 to 2,961,000 in 1951. As compared with these other countries, the Irish Republic has the lowest marriage rate, the highest age at marriage, the highest fertility rate and the highest emigration rate. A Commission on Emigration and other Population Problems was appointed in April, 1948, to examine, inter alia, the social and economic effects of the birth, death, emigration and marriage rates, and to investigate the causes and consequences of the present level and trend of population. Its Report, a limited stencilled edition of which appeared last autumn, provides an exhaustive statistical review...

Data on the fertility of teachers in grant earning schools in England and Wales were collected in 1955 as part of a general survey into the social characteristics of teachers. The survey was financed by the Nuffield Foundation with a contribution from the Population Investigation Committee. A subsequent article will discuss some possible determinants of fertility and in particular the interrelationship between social mobility and fertility. The present note describes changes in cohort fertility of teachers since 1915 and compares average family size with that of other sections of the population. The average number of children per married male teacher declined from 1.81 for the pre-1920 cohort to 1.47 for 1930–34. Segmental data after 1935 indicate a rise to approximately 2 children per family. Comparison with the Family Census suggests that the number of children of teachers is between 10% and 20% below that of all professions combined when the age at marriage of the wife is taken into account.

A 1968 study analyzing the relationship between desired family size and family planning practice was conducted by interviewing a probability sample of 1600 currently married women from a rural East Pakistan area. Women whose desired family size was equal to or less than their actual family size were found to have significantly greater frequencies (p less than or equal to .05) of family planning practice than women whose desired size exceeded actual size. This relationship persisted irrespective of most social and demographic factors except landholding womens age and age at marriage. To reduce levels of reproduction through contraception norms of family size must be changed and more attention paid to the social structure and factors affecting such norms.

A recent report from the National Center for Health Statistics, "Demographic Characteristics of Persons Married Between January 1955 and June 1958," describes and analyzes some of the central socioeconomic characteristics of couples married during the 3½-year period. Data include such factors as age at marriage, occupation, color, residence (region and farm or nonfarm), and status of the husband as head of the household. The study is the last of a series of four reports on socioeconomic characteristics of married couples in the United States covering specific intervals over an 11-year period beginning in 1947. The information in this report was gathered by household interviews made during the month of June 1958. The survey sample includes some 35,000 households and approximately 2,650 couples. Here are some of the findings of the report: Of couples married for the first time during this period, the median age for husbands was 23.1 years and

It is well known, that there is a relationship between the level of development of a society and its level offertility.(1) However, it is not clear which of the complex ofvariables associated with development are primarily associated with the reduction of fertility. Urbanization, female labour force participation and education are three of the variables most commonly cited as bearing a causal relationship to fertility. Urbanization implies a change of environment of a substantial portion of the population which may result in a change in the value placed on large families. This is particularly true when urban mortality is lower than rural, so that more children survive.(2) However, it has also been argued that urbanization results in a change in family structure from the extended to the nuclear family with a concomitant reduction in the value placed on having many children.(3) Additional changes in family patterns which are sometimes said to explain fertility reduction due to urbanization are increases in the proportion of women never marrying and increases in the age at marriage.

X GE is one of several important factors that tend to limit the choice of a marriage partner. There is a general tendency in American society for men to marry for the first time when they are in their twenties and for them to marry a wife a few years younger than they are. Age at first marriage varies over a relatively limited number of years for most men and women, and the difference between the ages of most spouses likewise is subject to a small range of variation. There is the additional tendency for the difference between the ages of the spouses to be greater if either or both are marrying for the second or subsequent time. However important age may be in marital selection, other factors, such as propinquity of residence, quite often outweigh it. Furthermore, age at marriage is associated with the age at which physical maturity is reached, the age at which marriageable persons of the two sexes are concentrated, the age at which education is completed, the age at which self-support begins, the age at which children can be borne, and the like. Some, if not all, of these items vary from one racial, religious, or economic group to another and among persons within any one group. Nor is age at marriage a tendency that is independent of the times. There is evidence that the median age at marriage has declined

The notions that first-borns (a) seek to affiliate with others when anxious and (b) are more affected by socialization practices were tested on 93 primiparous couples. It was found that (a) first-born women were more likely to attend prenatal classes than were later-born women; (b) couples composed of first-born spouses were closer together in age than were those dyads in which both spouses were later-born; (c) more first-born women were June brides than were later-born women; and (d) first-born males were younger than later-born males at marriage. Age at marriage of females, interfaith marriage, and length of engagement differences were not significant. Hypotheses are considered supported, and results are discussed.

There is a tendency in demographic research to employ "values" as the explanation of religious and ethnic differentials in family size. A more valuable method of conceptualization has been found by examining the structure of the Irish and Italian ethnic groups and the processes involved in their assimilation. It is found that age at marriage and social class factors are of major importance in understanding the behavior of these two groups. Cross-sectional data collected in Providence, Rhode Island, in 1962 show that Italian family size declines as the result of assimilation. Irish family size increases from lower than that of Italians to being higher. Further research should tell us whether there will be a significant ethnic differential in the use of "artificial" methods of birth control, and, hence, in family size.

The extreme pattern of young age marriages for females in India is of great interest not only as a social phenomenon but because of its implications of future births and hence growth of population in India in relation to its economic development. In the absence of a compulsory marriage registration system in India, census and fragmentary surveys are the only sources to provide data on marriages. Agarwala (1962) provided a detailed picture of changing trends in age at marriage in India based on the proportion of 'single' females in different age groups as obtained from different censuses. Kumar (1967) recently has calculated the nuptiality rate for 'single' females in different age groups by using the distribution of the population by marital status obtained from the 1951 and 1961 censuses. However, for estimating the marriage probabilities from only one census for the 'single' females at different ages we need to know only their subsequent history. Knowledge on the conditions of those who are currently married or widowed, may not improve the estimates of marriage probabilities obtained from the proportion of singles in different age groups.