Marriage in 1901 Canada: An Ecological Perspective

Abstract

In the absence of comprehensive national-level databases, historical patterns of Canadian marriage behavior remain poorly understood. This study draws on the Canadian Families Project’s 5 percent sample of the 1901 Census of Canada to contextualize district-level variation in both the timing and intensity of marriage among Canadian women and men. Local constraints and freedoms on marriage were conceptualized by a selection of marriage-market, economic, demographic, and general social characteristics. The results of ecological regression modeling indicate that, collectively, these were important factors underlying national variation in Canadian nuptiality, particularly with reference to striking interprovincial differences in marriage behavior.