Twentieth-Century Cohort Marriage and Divorce in England and Wales.

The article analyzes marital status for cohorts of men and women born in England and Wales between 1900 and 1945. Marital status life tables, which follow a real or synthetic birth cohort through life and the marital statuses of "never" married, "presently married", "widowed" and "divorced" reflect observed marriage, divorce and mortality behavior and provide a detailed record of a cohort's experience. The result is that cohorts deviate substantially from the "European pattern" of late marriage and high proportions never marrying. Also, dramatic rise in divorce has taken place and one marriage out of four ends in divorce. The aftermath of World War II and divorce reform legislation were both associated with sharp increases in period divorce rates. The magnitude and suddenness of those declines was dramatic, leading to speculation that the traditional European marriage pattern had been largely abandoned. The proportions ever married and the modal age at first marriage had changed substantially in female cohorts, whereas for males the only significant change was a decline in the age at first marriage. As marriage and divorce are closely related, they are best analyzed in the context of a single, comprehensive model.