Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Reading the Tables
- Acknowledgments
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1 People
- 2 Government and Politics
- 3 Economy
- 4 Work and the Labour Force
- 5 Government Taxes and Spending
- 6 Health
- 7 Education
- 8 Inequality and Social Welfare
- 9 International Relations
- 10 Environment
- 11 Science and Technology
- 12 Telecommunications and Computing
- 13 Media
- 14 Family
- 15 Gender
- 16 Lifestyles and Consumption
- 17 Crime and Social Problems
- 18 Religion, Values and Attitudes
- Sources and References
- List of Tables
14 - Family
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 September 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Reading the Tables
- Acknowledgments
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1 People
- 2 Government and Politics
- 3 Economy
- 4 Work and the Labour Force
- 5 Government Taxes and Spending
- 6 Health
- 7 Education
- 8 Inequality and Social Welfare
- 9 International Relations
- 10 Environment
- 11 Science and Technology
- 12 Telecommunications and Computing
- 13 Media
- 14 Family
- 15 Gender
- 16 Lifestyles and Consumption
- 17 Crime and Social Problems
- 18 Religion, Values and Attitudes
- Sources and References
- List of Tables
Summary
Marriage
Family life, and especially marriage, is undergoing rapid and profound changes, which are partly reflected in Tables 14.1 and 14.2.
Table 14.1 shows that young people are increasingly delaying marriage. Even in the years between 1980 and 1999, the mean age at first marriage rose by around four years. In every single country, and among both sexes, the mean age at the time of first marriage rose. In Australia, the age at first marriage edged steadily downward over the decades until reaching its youngest point in 1971 (23.8 years for men and 21.4 years for women), but has been climbing since then. Moreover, compared with the previous generations' glacial movement towards ever younger marriage, the trend towards older marriage has been very rapid.
It has not been possible to obtain good longitudinal comparative data on one reason for the increasing tendency to delay marriage: the growing trend towards cohabitation. In Australia, the proportion of all heterosexual couples who were cohabiting rose from 1% in 1971 to 6% in 1986 and 10% in 1996. Moreover, cohabiting before marriage has now become the norm. Of people getting married in 1975, only 16% had cohabited, while in 2000 71% said they had.
The other major change in the selected countries has been towards the more frequent dissolution of marriages. Divorce rates rose by more than 2.5 times in the last three decades of the 20th century.
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- Chapter
- Information
- How Australia Compares , pp. 191 - 200Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2004