Explaining Cross-Cultural Variations in Age at Marriage and Proportions Never Marrying.

This article attempts to explain cross-cultural variations in age at marriage and proportions never marrying. The purpose of this paper is to develop a framework in which the causes of current variations in the timing and quantity of nuptiality are explored. Although timing and quantity tend to be related, each is an analytically distinct component of the marriage pattern and each contributes independently to variations in birth rates. Sometimes treated as independent variables or as determinants of other processes, they are in this analysis treated as dependent variables, themselves in need of explanation. Five geographical regions are included in the analysis: Western Europe, Eastern Europe, the English-speaking nations overseas, the Middle East, and Asia. The original intention was to include all countries in the world with populations over 100,000 hut the countries included in the final analysis cover only half the population of the world in 1960. The U.S.S.R., China and other socialist Asian countries are excluded because of lack of data. The Caribbean, Central America and South America are excluded because of difficulties in interpreting available data due to the high incidence of consensual unions.