Long-Term Trends of Partner Age Differences by Educational Pairings: An Exploratory Study in Four Countries

Although extensive research has been conducted on the evolving patterns of educational assortative mating, the interplay between this phenomenon and partners' age differences has received limited attention.This study offers a twofold contribution.First, it examines trends in both age and educational assortative mating over 5 decades across four countries.Second, it explores age-difference trends in educationally heterogamous and homogamous couples, with a focus on patterns related to educational homogamy.We used IPUMSi harmonized census microdata for Brazil, France, Panama, and the United States, available since the 1960s.Results indicate a slight increase in the proportion of same-age couples among tertiary-educated couples over time, while proportions across other educational pairings remain stable.Additionally, we observe a growing prevalence of relationships in which the man is much older than the woman, particularly among educationally hypergamous and homogamous low-educated couples.These trends are consistent across all contexts examined.