Marriage Prevalence and Education in Developing Countries

Albert Esteve, Centre d'Estudis Demogràfics (CED)
Timothy Riffe, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
Jeroen J.A. Spijker, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona

The main objective of this paper is to examine the degree of convergence between countries regarding marriage prevalence and timing among young adults as a function of educational attainment. This research is based on three well-documented socio-demographic observations: Educational expansion in most low and middle income countries over the past 4 decades; early marriage timing in low and middle-income countries as compared to high-income countries; and the effects of increasing education on marriage timing and prevalence, most studies on this having developed in Europe and North America. We use IPUMS census microdata since 1980 from 16 countries to examine the effect of education on marriage prevalence and timing among younger cohorts. We use multilevel logistic regression models. Preliminary results show that net of all control factors, differences in marriage prevalence between countries persist but are significantly lower when considering only higher educated individuals.