Marital status life tables follow a birth cohort through life and the
marital statuses of Never Married, Presently Married, Widowed, and Divorced,
reflecting observed marriage, divorce, and mortality and providing a detailed
description of the cohort's lifetime experience. The present paper examines sum
mary measures from such tables for male and female Belgian cohorts born
1888-1945. The results indicate that Belgium has followed the general Western
trend toward more and earlier marriages and a higher level of divorce. Nonethe
less, traditional aspects remain, as Belgian males have a high proportion never
marrying, and overall levels of divorce are still comparatively low.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Belgium, Commission Centrale de Statistique (CCS)1928Movement de la Population et de l'Etat Civil en Belgique Pour les Années 1911 à 1920, Gand.
2.
Belgium, Institut National de Statistique (INS)1899- Annuaire Statistique de la Belgique et du 1977 Congo Belge, Bruxelles (after 1968, title changed to Annuaire Statistique de la Belgique) . vols. 19-97.
3.
Belgium, Intérieur Ministère de Statistique de la Belgique1916Population Recensement Général de 1910, vol. 1, Brussels.
4.
Belgium, Ministère des Affaires Economiques et de l'Energie1965Recensement de la Population 1961, vol. 5, Brussels.
5.
Belgium, Office Central de Statistique (OCS)Bulletin de Statistique:1956, 1962, 1966.
6.
Bunle, Henri1954Le Movement Naturel de la Population dans le Monde de 1906 à 1936. Paris: L'Institut National d'Etudes Demographiques .
7.
Easterlin, R.A.1978 "What Will 1984 Be Like? Socioeconomic Implications of Recent Twists in Age Structure."Demography15:397-432.
8.
Festy, Patrick and France Prioux1975 "Le divorce en Europe depuis 1950." Population30:975-1017.
9.
Hajnal, J.1953 "The Marriage Boom."Population Index19:80-101.
10.
1965 "European Marriage Patterns in Perspective." In D. V. Glass and D. E. C. Eversley, eds., Population in History, 101-143. London : Edward Arnold.
11.
Keyfitz, Nathan and Wilhelm Flieger1968World Population: An Analysis of Vital Data. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
12.
League of Nations1943Statistical Yearbook of the League of Nations 1941/42. Geneva: Economic Intelligence Service.
13.
Preston, S.H. and John McDonald1979 "The Incidence of Divorce within Cohorts of American Marriages Contracted since the Civil War." Demography16:1-25.
14.
Rogers, Andrei and Jacques Ledent1976 "Increment-Decrement Life Tables: A Comment." Demography13:287-290.
15.
Ryder, N.B.1969 "The Emergence of a Modern Fertility Pattern: United States 1917-1966." In S. J. Behrman, Leslie Corsa, Jr., and Ronald Freedman, eds., Fertility and Family Planning: A World View , 99-123. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press .
16.
Schoen, Robert1975 "Constructing Increment-Decrement Life Tables." Demography12:313-324. 1979 " Calculating Increment Decrement Life Tables by Estimating Mean Durations at Transfer from Observed Rates." Mathematical Biosciences47:255-269.
17.
Schoen, Robert and V.E. Nelson1974 "Marriage, Divorce, and Mortality: A Life Table Analysis."Demography11:267-290.
18.
Schoen, Robert and W.L. Urton1979a "'A Theoretical Perspective on Cohort Marriage and Divorce in Twentieth Century Sweden." Journal of Marriage and the Family41:409-415.
19.
1979b Marital Status Life Tables for Sweden. Urval No. 10. Stockholm: Statistika Centralbyrån.
20.
Schoen, Robert, W. L.Urton, Karen Woodrow, and John Baj1982 "Family Formation and Dissolution in Twentieth-Century America: A Cohort Analysis." Unpublished manuscript, Dept. of Sociology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
21.
Shryock, H.S., J.S. Siegel, and Associates1973The Methods and Materials of Demography. rev. ed. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office.
22.
United Nations1949Demographic Yearbook, 1948. New York: United Nations. 1959Demographic Yearbook, 1958. New York: United Nations.
23.
van de Walle, Etienne 1968 "Marriage and Marital Fertility ." Daedalus97:486-501.
24.
Watkins, S.C.1981 "Regional Patterns of Nupitality in Europe, 1870-1960 ." Population Studies34:199-115.
25.
Wunsch, Guillaume1973 "Recent Trends in Nuptiality in European Countries. A Demographic Analysis." In B. W. Frijling , ed., Social Change in Europe: Some Demographic Consequences , 91-119. Leiden , Netherlands: E. J. Brill.
26.
1978 "Effect of Changes in Nuptiality on Fertilty in Western Europe." Working Paper No. 46, Department of Demography, Université Catholique de Louvain.
