Relationship to population development

This is the first of four chapters in which some of the principal features of the components of population change will be discussed, against a background of social, economic and political considerations and influences. The aim throughout this part of the book is to show how the features can be analysed and presented in statistical terms and to indicate the likely nature of the results of analysis. Marriage is not, in the most direct sense, a component of population change but it has a profound influence on fertility, which is, and which comes up for consideration in the next chapter. A change of marital status may also have an influence on mortality and migration: how it can do so will be discussed in the ensuring two chapters. Marriage is also, however, a subject of interest in its own right, the main areas of importance being, first, the extent and the reasons for deferment beyond the time of puberty, and secondly the relationships between the demographic characteristics of the spouses and the way in which these are affected by changes in the relative numbers of men and women becoming available for marriage.

General characteristics

The definition of marriage has already been discussed – see §3.7 above. Evidence from the past, and from many types of human society today, suggests that it is a normal state of affairs for adults to marry, usually at an early age. Time is required for courtship, but this need not be protracted, for the manner in which children are educated, by their parents and at school, and the way in which they are brought together in their early years, all serve to prepare them for their adult relationships.