On the Tempo and Quantum of First Marriages in Austria, Germany, and Switzerland: Changes in Mean Age and Variance

Maria E. Winkler-Dworak, Vienna Institute of Demography
Henriette Engelhardt, Austrian Academy of Sciences

Period marriage rates have been falling dramatically in most industrial societies since the beginning of the 1970s. As it has been shown in the literature, part of this decline is due to the postponement of marriage to older ages. The change in variance effects has been ignored yet. In the case of Austria, Germany, and Switzerland, this paper explores how much of the change in female first marriage rates can be attributed to tempo and variance effects, and how much is due to quantum effects, that is the proportion of ever-marrying women.