Cohort nuptiality in New Zealand : a study based primarily on the distributions of the non-Maori vital events recorded during the period 1900-67

Abstract

Earlier attempts to measure the incidence of nuptiality (marriage;, remarriage and marriage dissolution - widowhood and divorce) have generally been carried out within the framework of two limitations: (i) they were invariably based on crude measures; and (ii) they were based on measures derived indirectly from census data. At the end of the nineteenth century, nuptiality tables were constructed by utilizing age-specific marriage rates observed during a year (or during a period) while assuming that these rates represented the marriage experience of a real cohort during its lifetime. The cohort may have been a birth cohort (i.e., a group of babies born during a year) or a juvenile cohort (i.e., a group of persons attaining the minimum marriageable age during a year). Until the present time the construction of nuptiality tables remains the best method for appraising marriage habits. In countries where the basic data to construct such a table are not available, alternative means of ascertaining the marriage habits are sought from census or survey data. Show more