Patterns of first marriage in Finland and Hungary: a comparative study
Abstract
The main purpose of this paper is to investigate the nature and background of the difference between the nuptiality pattern in Finland and Hungary and to contribute to better understanding of the demographic behavior. The emphasis is on the first marriage. Historically, Finland belongs to the countries characterized by the European pattern while Hungary followed the so called Eastern European pattern. Even if the both patterns have come closer to each other there are still differences between them which is seen, especially, in the age at marriage and the total First marriage rate. The author presents the marriage trends by using both period and cohort measures. In order to analyze the changes in the age structure and the intensity of the first marriage, the classical life table method was applied to cohorts born between 1945 and 1970. The birth cohorts are supposed to be closed, not influenced by migration or mortality. For Finland projective probabilities are computed on the bases of cohort first marriage rates, for Hungary conventional probabilities are used.
