Asian Marriage Patterns in Transition

Both social and economic forces have contributed to changing traditional marital patterns in Asian societies in the last several decades. Such changes are compared to the changes in marital patterns which occurred in Europe before and again at the time of industrialization. Analyses are based on schedules of percentages ever married by age and sex and nuptiality indicators derived from them. Social change seems to have led to later marriage for both males and females in all non-Western societies studied. Accompanying this change has been the move to individually chosen mates and times of marriage. Data is presented in tabular and scattergram form. There is geographical variability as to the extent of nuptiality change resulting either from timing differences or from different sociocultural backgrounds. Migration-induced sex ratio effects on nuptiality are examined. Such effects are generally inconsistent across countries. Unlike in Europe permanent celibacy is not a factor of importance in Asia. Nuptiality patterns in Asia are examined in more detail in relation to the following 3 factors of modernization: educational opportunity and attainment labor force participation and urbanization. It is speculated that these processes will cause continued marriage delay and greater levels of celibacy in the future.