DEMOGRAPHY Volume 9, Number 1 February 1972

FACTORS ASSOCIATED WITH RELIGIOUS ANDCIVIL MARRIAGES

Ira RosenwalkeDivision of Biostatistics, Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, 301West Preston Street, Baltimore, Maryland 21201

Abstract-Religious preference and educational level appear to be the majorcharacteristics accounting for variation by age at marriage among Ameri­cans. Differences in age at marriage by educational attainment have beendefinitively documented in census reports, while those by religion havebeen based largely on analyses of the experience in the two states wherereligion is a separate item on the marriage certificate. This current studyof category of ceremony data, as reported on marriage certificates, indi­cates that this item can, for some purposes, fairly adequately serve as asubstitute source of data for specific religious information. Data forMaryland residents, showing that persons involved in Jewish and Catholicweddings marry later than those in Protestant ceremonies, are in closeagreement with findings obtained in a national probability sample whichascertained religious preference and age at marriage.

Social scientists have concluded thatparticipation in different religious sys­tems in American society influencesmarital norms, among them the age atmarriage (Burchinal and Chancellor,1963). In the 1950's mounting interestin the relationship between religiousaffiliation and the marriage and familysystems led to the initiation by two statevital statistics offices of items requestingreligion of bride and groom on the mar­riage records. However, after Iowa in1953 and Indiana in 1959 had adopteda query on religion, interest lagged andother states failed to follow suit (Chris­tensen and Barber, 1967). Thus most ofthe reliable vital statistics data on re­ligion as related to marriage are basedon the experience of these two states.Burchinal and Chancellor (1963) exten­sively analyzed the Iowa data, andChristensen and Barber (1967), as wellas Rosenthal (1968), prepared studiesfrom different points of view based oninformation-from Indiana.

In this paper it is shown that the ab­sence of specific information on religiousaffiliation of bride and groom need notpreclude consideration of religion in astudy of marriages based on vital recordsdata. A number of states have for sometime been coding marriages performedaccording to the religion of the officiantat the ceremony, but not much use hasbeen made of the data. The NationalCenter for Health Statistics preparedstatistics on the distribution of religiousceremonies among the major religiousgroups-Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish-for six selected states in 1960 and 1961(National Center for Health Statistics,1964 and 1965). A few basic tabulationswere published before the innovation wasdiscontinued. The information on reli­gious identification of the ceremony re­ported on the marriage certificate offersthe potential-albeit a strictly limitedone-for certain types of analysis by re­ligious differentials. The limits are de­fined in this paper and some of the possi-

129

130 DEMOGRAPHY, volume 9, number 1, February 1972

bilities are explored in data relating toMaryland for 1969.

In 1965, the last year for which na­tional data on the topic were published,76 percent of the marriages in the mar­riage registration area of the UnitedStates for which class of ceremony wasindicated were solemnized in religiousceremonies, and 24 percent in civil cere­monies (National Center for Health Sta­tistics, 1968, Table 1-38). Two aspectsof marriage that strongly affect compari­sons between civil and religious mar­riages are place of residence as relatedto place of occurrence, and order ofmarriage. In contrast to religious mar­riages, a high proportion of all civilceremonies involve llmigratory" couples-that is, nonresidents of states in whichthe ceremony was performed. In 1965,of the brides who lived in the UnitedStates registration area and who marriedwithin their own state, only 21 percenthad a civil ceremony, while among thosewhose marriage occurred in a state otherthan their state of residence a majority­52 percent-chose civil ceremonies (N80­

tional Center for Health Statistics, 1968,Table 1-40). Thus, in any analysis in­volving comparisons between civil andreligious ceremonies the two factors, placeof occurrence and place of residence,must be carefully considered. In general,the greater the appeal possessed by astate in attracting migratory marriages,the higher its proportion of civil mar­riages. As a corollary, it may be inferredthat for residents of an individual state,the proportion with civil ceremonies willdiffer substantially between those marry­ing within the state and those marryingelsewhere. Persons who go outside theboundaries of their state of residence forthe purpose of getting married are morelikely to wed in civil ceremonies thanthose in intrastate marriages.

The second important factor that mustbe considered in contrasting civil and re­ligious marriages is marriage order. Iowadata indicated: II••• civil ceremonies

were more frequent among couples in­volved in remarriages than among thosewho are entering first marriages, regard­less of spousal religious affiliation combi­nations, ages of brides, status levels ofbridegrooms or the interactions of thesevariables" (Burchina1 and Chancellor,1962 a). Similarly, the national registra­tion area data for 1965 showed thatamong both brides and grooms the pro­portion of civil ceremonies among thosewho remarried was approximately twiceas high as that for brides and groomsin first marriages (National Center forHealth Statistics, 1968).

THE DATA

Certificates of marriages occurring inMaryland in 1969 and marriage recordsfrom the states adjoining Maryland thatinvolved Maryland residents were thebasic sources of data from which thisstudy has been developed. Marriage rec­ords on file in the Maryland Departmentof Health and Mental Hygiene for 1969numbered 52,881, of which 35,726 in­volved a Maryland resident. The numberof records obtained from adjacent areastotalled 4,254. This included 1,603 fromthe District of Columbia, 1,543 from Vir­ginia, 788 from Pennsylvania, and thebalance from West Virginia and Dela­ware. In the states of Pennsylvania, Vir­ginia, and West Virginia, marriages ofMaryland residents were located throughcomputer operations by the respectivestate health departments, which also sup­plied punch cards for each of the mar­riages involved. For Delaware, xeroxcopies of marriage records of Marylandresidents were submitted by the StateHealth Department. Marriages of Mary­land residents occurring in the Districtof Columbia were located by hand searchby staff of the Maryland Departmentof Health and Mental Hygiene workingat the District of Columbia MarriageLicense Bureau.

Information appearing on the marriagerecords concerning the officiant of the

Religious and Civil Marriages

ceremony was coded as civil, Protestant,Catholic, Jewish, other. This information,as well as demographic details from eacharea of occurrence relating to age, race,residence, and marital status of brideand groom, were transferred to punchcards.

There is no regular interchange forstatistical purposes of marriage recordsbetween states (as exists in the case ofbirth and death records), and it was notfeasible to obtain marriage records fromevery area in the nation. The inclusionof out-of-state events was thereforelimited to those marriages occurring instates adjoining Maryland.

ALL MARRIAGES OCCURRING IN MARYLAND

Table 1 shows both the category ofceremony of all marriages performed inMaryland in 1969 and the resident statusof the bride and groom. While fully 28percent of all marriages were civil cere­monies (15,006 of 52,881), a majority ofthese (almost 62 percent) were cere­monies involving nonresidents. On theother hand, in 21 percent of the mar­riages performed by a religious officiant,the bride and groom both were out-of­state residents. Religious ceremonies havebeen subdivided into three major cate­gories, Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish.A fourth group, "Other", includes thosemarriages where the denomination of theofficiant (chiefly military chaplains) wasnot indicated on the marriage certificate,as well as a small number of EasternOrthodox and other religious denomina­tions. Couples married in Protestantceremonies were found several timesmore likely to be out-of-state residentsthan were those participating in Catholicor Jewish services. The fact that mem­bers of religious groups vary in the de­gree to which they are likely to partici­pate in "migratory" marriage is one ofthe limitations of analysis simply on thebasis of state of occurrence data.

Factors other than resident status varyby class of ceremony. Iowa data showed

131

that IIluch higher percentages of civilceremonies occurred among interreligiousmarriages than among religiously en­dogamous marriages. In addition, civilmarriages were shown to be associatedwith extremes in the ages of brides atmarriage, with lower socioeconomic statuslevels of grooms, and with remarriages(Burchinal and Chancellor, 1962 a, 1962b). The last relationship also shows upclearly in statistics assembled for themarriage registration area of the UnitedStates. About one-fifth of all personsin first marriages in 1965 had civil cere­monies performed, compared with abouttwo-fifths of remarrying brides andgrooms (National Center for HealthStatistics, 1968, Table 1-38).

MARRIAGES OF MARYLAND RESIDENTS

Table 2 shows previous marital statusby category of ceremony for residentbrides marrying in Maryland in 1969.As expected on the basis of national data,the proportion of previously marriedbrides who took part in civil ceremonieswas about twice that of those who tookpart in religious ceremonies. Neverthe­less, it will be noted that the percentageof women in Protestant or Jewish cere­monies who were single (76 and 82 per­cent respectively) did not greatly differfrom the average for all resident brides(78 percent). In marked contrast, over95 percent of all resident brides inCatholic ceremonies were single and anadditional three percent were widowed,a finding in agreement with the recog­nized Catholic attitude toward divorce.It seems to follow that when Catholicswho are divorced remarry, the weddingwill usually be a non-Catholic (probablycivil) ceremony. Accordingly, for remar­riages, category of ceremony data aresubstantially invalidated as a measure­ment of religious community. Becauseof these problems, the use of categoryof ceremony data to reflect religiouspreference should be restricted to firstmarriages. Subsequent analysis in thi~

132 DEMOGRAPHY, volume 9, number 1, February 1972

TABLE t.-Marriages Occurring in Maryland, by Category: of Ceremony and Residence ofBride and Groom: 1969

Category of ceremonyReligious Civil

Resident status All Protes- Cath- Jew-at marriage marriages Total tant oUc ish Other

NUMBERAll marriages. 52,881 37,875 29,551 6,727 1,084 513 15,006

Both partnersstate residents. 29,280 24,771 18,371 5,326 787 287 4,509

Bride onlystate resident • 4,502 3,829 2,668 868 183 110 673

Groom onlystate resident • 1,944 1,366 1,090 203 38 35 578

Neither partner.state resident • 17,155 7,909 7,422 330 76 81 9,246

PERCENTAll marriages. 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0

Both partnersstate residents. 55.4 65.4 62.2 79.2 72.6 55.9 30.0

Bride onlystate reside~t • 8.5 10.1 9.0 12.9 16.9 21.4 4.5

Groom onlystate resident 3.7 3.6 3.7 3.0 3.5 6.8 3.9

Neither partnerstate resident 32.4 20.9 25.1 4.9 7.0 15.8 61.6

TABLE 2.-Resident Brides by Category of Ceremony and Previous Marital Status, MarriagesOccurring in Maryland: 1969

Category of ceremonyReligious Civil

Previous All Protes- Cath- Jew-marital status marriages Total tant olic ish Other

NUMBER

All marriages. 33,782 28,600 21,039 6,194 970 397 5,182

Never married. 26,476 23,111 16,063 5,.921 794 333 3,365Divorced or

annulled • 5,767 4,201 3,938 82 126 55 1,566Widowed. 1,539 1,288 1,038 191 50 .9 251

PERCENT

All marriages. 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0

Never married. 78.4 80.8 76.3 95.6 81.9 83.9 64.9Divorced or

annulled • 17.1 14.7 18.7 1.3 13.0 13.9 30.2Widowed. If.6 4.5 4.9 3.1 5.2 2.3 4.8

Religious and Civil Marriages

paper will therefore be based only onfirst marriages of Maryland residents.

Table 3 shows the number of Mary­land resident brides and grooms whosefirst marriage took place in Marylandor in adjacent areas in 1969. As pre­viously explained, data on Marylandresidents marrying in other parts of theUnited States were not obtained. It isbelieved, however, that only a small frac­tion of Marylanders who married duringthe year were thereby excluded from thestudy. Among marriages in the UnitedStates registration area in 1965, less thanfour percent of first-married brides andseven percent of first-married groomswere neither residents of the state inwhich the ceremony took place nor resi­dents of adjoining states (National Cen­ter for Health Statistics, 1965, Table1-34).

Although, as expected, civil officialsperformed a higher proportion of theout-of-state marriages of resident bridesthan of the intrastate (18.4 percent ver­sus 12.7 percent), the difference was notespecially large. Certain special factorsassociated with Maryland warrant care-

133

ful explanation. Two of Maryland'slargest counties are adjacent to Wash­ington, D. C. Many of their residentsundoubtedly belong to religious congre­gations located within that city. Mar­riage ceremonies in the District of Co­lumbia, while technically occurring outof state, differ sharply from the usualconcept of "migratory" marriage. Thisprobably contributes toward a higherproportion of religious ceremonies amongthe out-of-state marriages of Marylandresidents than might be found were simi­lar studies attempted elsewhere. The highproportion of religious ceremonies occur­ing out of state, probably largely in theDistrict, is particularly evident amongJewish ceremonies (Table 3). Anotherfactor (unrelated, but working in thesame direction) is that Maryland haswithin its own boundaries, in CecilCounty, a traditional "Gretna Green",or place of elopement. Marriages of manyMaryland couples which in other areasmight have been out-of-state civil cere­monies here become in-state civil cere­monies. These special circumstances needto be kept in mind in viewing many of

TABLE 3.-First Marriages of Maryland Resident Brides and Grooms, by Category of Cere­mony and Place of Occurrence: 1969

Occurring Occurring inCategory of ceremony All in adjoining state

marriages Maryland Number Percent

ALL BRIDES • 28,384 26,476 1,908 6.7

Religious • 24,667 23,111 1,556 6.3Protestant 16,963 16,063 900 5.3Catholic • 6,265 5,921 344 5.5Jewish. 978 794 184 18.8Other • 461 333 128 27.8

Civil . 3,717 3,365 352 9.5

ALL GROOMS. • 26,450 24,031 2,419 9.1

Religious • 22,813 20,729 2,084 9.1Protestant 15,913 14,578 1,335 8.4Catholic • 5,705 '5,231 474 8.3Jewish. 822 653 169 20.6Other • 373 267 106 28.4

Civil 3,637 3,302 335 9.2

RELIGIOUS DISTRIDUTION

The selection of Maryland for detailedstudy presents an opportunity to ex­amine differentiations by religion in astate where the religious distributionof the population apparently resemblesquite closely that characterizing the na­tion as a whole. Table 4 indicates thaton a color-specific basis, the distributionby category of ceremony for Marylandresident brides participating in religiousceremonies in 1969 closely parallels thebest available estimates of the distribu­tion of the United States populationaccording to religion. The latter are de­rived from a sample survey of thecivilian population of the United Statestaken by the Bureau of the Census inMarch 1957 (U. S. Bureau of the Census,1958). (More recent data are not avail­able.)

About two-thirds of all whites andnine-tenths of all nonwhites in the U.S.sample survey were reported as Protes­tant. The proportions for Maryland

134 DEMOGRAPHY, volume 9, number 1, February 1972

the differences between in-state and ad- whites and nonwhites marrying in re­jacent-state marriages of Maryland resi- ligious ceremonies who participated indents as compared to experience in other Protestant ceremonies were practicallyareas. identical to these distributions. About

29 percent of the white population na­tionally reported in a religious groupwere Catholics. Similarly, approximately29 percent of all whites wed in Marylandreligious ceremonies were in those identi­fied as Catholic. The close comparisonbetween the national data and the Mary­land source material also held for non­white Catholics and for Jews.

The United States data for 1957 indi­cated that at the time of the survey,for the great majority of all marriedcouples, both husband and wife were inthe same religious group. Among allmarried couples, exclusive of those inwhich one or both partners reported areligion other than the three majorgroups (Protestant, Catholic, or Jewish),93.6 percent consisted of husbands andwives in the same major religious group.Specifically, only nine percent of thecouples with at least one Protestant part­ner had a non-Protestant partner, andin only seven percent of the cases wherea Jewish husband or wife was presentwas the other spouse reported as non-

TABLE 4.-Comparison of Percent Distribution of United States Population by Religion, 1957,and of Maryland Religious Marriage Ceremonies by Category, 1969: White and Nonwhite

WHITE NONWHITE

Religiousgroup

Total •ProtestantCatholicJewish •Other

U.S.population

1957a

100.066.128.93.71.3

Marylandmarriages

1969b

100.064.328.84.82.1

U.S.population

1957a

100.091.66.80.11.6

Marylandmarriages

1969b

100.090.09.2

0.8

a-Persons 14 years old and over. Excludes those reporting no religion orwith religion not stated.Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1958.

b-First marriages of Maryland resident brides by type of re1i~ious cere­mony. Excludes those in civil ceremon1e~.

Religious and Civil Marriages

Jewish. Among couples including atleast one Roman Catholic, 22 percentwere mixed Roman Catholic with Protes­tant or Jewish spouses. Since some per­sons in interfaith marriages change theirreligion after marriage to conform to thatof their spouse, it has been suggestedthat the role of religion at the time ofmarriage may have been overstated inthis survey, as preference data were forthe date of the survey rather than thetime of marriage (U.S. Bureau of theCensus, 1958; Glick, 1960).

A study made in 1968 of young collegegraduates indicated that the tendencyto seek religious homogeneity in mar­riage had not weakened (Greeley, 1970).Accordingly, if we may assume that thecurrent pattern does not greatly differfrom that of the· past, perhaps as manyas 90 percent of the recent marriages donot involve spouses who are of different(major) religious affiliation.

It may also be concluded that a dis­proportionate share of the small minorityof all marriages that are interreligiousinvolve civil ceremonies. Iowa data forfirst marriages occurring in 1953-1957among white couples showed that forceremonies where bride and groom wereboth Catholic, only 7.9 percent had civilofficiants. However, when Catholic bridesmarried non-Catholic grooms, 32.4 per­cent had civil ceremonies (Burchinal andChancellor, 1962 a). A similar patternhas been demonstrated for Indiana. Mar­riage data for whites in 1960 (whichincluded remarriages as well as firstmarriages) indicated that mixed Catho­lic-Protestant marriages were more thantwice as likely to involve civil cere­monies than were those where the partieswere either both Catholic or both Protes­tant (Christensen and Barber, 1967).Since interreligious marriages are over­represented among civil ceremonies, itfollows that they are underrepresentedamong church weddings. Thus, we canbe fairly confident that most singlebrides and grooms participating in re-

135

ligious ceremonies (probably well over90 percent of those in Protestant or Jew­ish ceremonies, and 80 percent of thosein Catholic ceremonies) are affiliatedwith the major religious group involved.On these grounds it can be assumed thatthe religious ceremony reported generallyreflects the religious preference of bothbride and groom.

AGE AT FIRST MARRIAGE

As will be seen in Table 5, of theMaryland residents in first marriagesincluded in the study, 13.1 percent ofbrides and 13.8 percent of grooms weremarried in civil ceremonies. Brides inthe age extremes were much more likelyto choose civil ceremonies than brideswho married at ages from 17 through29 years. Brides 16 years of age andunder and brides 30 years old and overhad about twice as high a proportion ofcivil ceremonies (about 23 and 25 per­cent respectively) as brides in the inter­vening ages (about 12 percent). Amonggrooms, the youngest also included ahigher than average proportion havingcivil ceremonies (19 percent of thoseaged 18 years or younger); however, theage group 35 years and over had thehighest proportion with civil ceremonies(25 percent).

The age distribution by category ofceremony at first marriage for white andnonwhite brides and grooms who wereMaryland residents is shown in Tables6 and 7. Among first-married spouses inreligious ceremonies, those in Protestantmarriages tended to be younger thanthose in Catholic or Jewish ceremonies.Among single white brides in religiousceremonies, the proportion under age 18ranged from 15.0 percent for Protestantmarriages to 0.9 percent for Jewish mar­riages. Only 27 percent of white bridesin Protestant ceremonies were 22 yearsof age or older, compared with 34 per­cent of those in Catholic ceremonies andalmost 49 percent of those in Jewishceremonies.

136 DEMOGRAPHY, volume 9, number 1, February 1972

TABLE 5.-First Marriages of Maryland Resident Brides and Grooma in Religious and CivilCeremonies, by Age: 1969

Class of ceremonyTotal Religious Civil

Age marriages Number Percent

BRIDES

All agesa 28,384 24,667 3,717 13.1.16 and under 1,424 1,091 333 23.417 1,981 1,684 297 15.018 4.315 3.660 655 15.219 4.014 3.536 478 11.920 3.942 3,515 427 10.821 3.659 3.334 325 8.922 2.979 2,736 243 8.223-24 2,547 2.250 297 11.725-29 2.165 1,845 320 14.830 and over. 1,356 1,014 342 25.2

GROOMS

All ages 26,450 22.813 3,637 13.818 and under 2,208 1,782 426 19.319 2,405 2.092 313 13.020 2.710 2.413 297 11.021 4,007 3.507 500 12.522 3,927 3,485 442 11.323 2.485 2.216 269 10.824 1.913 1,677 236 12.325-29 4.411 3,794 617 14.030-34 1.118 897 221 19.835 and over. 1,266 950 316 25.0

a-Includes two brides with age not stated.

The variation at age of marriage bycategory of religious ceremony followeda similar pattern among white grooms.The highest proportion of all teenagegrooms (20.5 percent) was those wed inProtestant ceremonies; the proportionwed in Catholic ceremonies was inter­mediate (11.4 percent); and the propor­tion wed in Jewish ceremonies (1.4 per­cent) was lowest.

Nonwhites tended to marry somewhatlater than whites, and their age distribu­tion was far more skewed at the upperranges. Relatively, twice as many non­white brides (22 percent) as white brides(10 percent) were 25 years of age orolder, and more than twice as many non­white grooms (16 percent) 88 white

grooms (seven percent) were 30 yearsof age or more. The ag,e distribution ofnonwhite spouses in Catholic ceremoniestended to resemble that of whites inCatholic ceremonies more than it didthat of other nonwhites. Both brides andgrooms in Catholic marriages were lesslikely to marry at very early ages or atvery late ages.

Since the choice of civil rather thanreligious marriage is relatively more fre­quent among brides and grooms at thetwo extremes of the age range, it is ap­parent that selectivity out of the variousreligious categories into the civil desig­nation is associated with age. If infor­mation on the religious preference ofindividuals were available, it would

Religious and Civil Marriages 137

TABLE 5.-Age at First Marriage by Category of Ceremony and Color, Maryland ResidentBride.: 1969

Percentage distribution of brides by age at marriage16 17 18 19 20 21 22- 25

Color and Number yrs. yrs. yrs. yrs. yrs. yrs. 24 yrs.category of Total and yrs. and

of ceremony bridesa under over

WHITE BRIDES

Total • • 23,443 100.0 5.1 7.0 15.5 14.1 14.2 13.5 20.2 10.3Protestant • 13,078 100.0 6.3 8.7 17.6 14.5 13.6 12.2 17.9 9.3Catholic. · 5,869 1"00.0 0.9 3.7 12.1 15.4 16.8 16.8 24.8 9.5Jewish . 978 100.0 0.4 0.5 1.8 7.0 15.7 26.0 36.6 12.0Other. 425 100.0 2.6 4.5 10.6 15.8 13.4 15.3 26.1 11.8Civil. · 3,093 100.0 10.1 8.3 18.5 12.3 11.5 8.8 15.1 15.4

NONWHITEBRIDES

Total • · 4,941 100.0 4.4 7.1 13.6 14.2 12.3 10.0 16.0 22.4Protestant • 3,885 100.0 4.9 7.5 13.5 13.8 12.1 10.1 16.3 21.9Catholic. 396 100.0 1.3 3.8 15.9 16.4 15.9 11.6 18.9 16.2Other. 36 100.0 11.1 16.7 8.3 5.6 8.3 5.6 25.0 19.4Civil. 624 100.0 3.4 6.3 13.1 15.9 11.4 8.5 11.9 29.6

a-Includes two brides, age unknown.

TABLE 7.-Age at First Marriage by Category of Ceremony and Color, Maryland ResidentGrooms: 1969

Percentage distribution of grooms by age at marriage18 19 20 21 22 23- 25- 30

Color and Number yrs. yrs. yrs. yrs. yrs. 24 29 yrs.category of Total and yrs. yrs. and

of ceremony grooms under over

WHITE GROOMS

Total • • 21,589 100.0 8.7 8.9 10.1 15.6 15.5 17.1 16.6 7.4Protestant • 12,117 100.0 10.3 10.3 11.0 15.2 14.8 15.9 15.6 6.8Catholic. · 5,312 100.0 4.0 7.4 10.7 17.4 18.4 20.1 16.9 5.1Jewish . 822 100.0 0.7 0.7 2.6 16.7 18.2 26.2 27.0 7.9Other. 347 100.0 6.3 6.9 7.8 13.3 13.8 18.2 25.1 8.6Civil. · 2,991 100.0 13.2 8.4 8.1 13.9 12.3 14.1 16.6 13.4

NONWHITEGROOMS

Total • · 4,861 100.0 6.6 9.9 10.7 13.2 12.0 14.5 16.8 16.2Protestant • 3,796 100.0 7.0 10.2 10.9 13.2 11.8 14.5 15.9 16.4Catholic. 393 100.0 5.6 6.1 10.9 14.2 15.0 17.8 22.4 7.9Other. 26 100.0 11.5 15.4 19.2 7.7 15.4 15.4 11.5 3.8CiviL 646 100.0 4.6 9.8 8.7 13.2 11.3 12.7 18.7 21.1

138 DEMOGRAPHY, volume 9, number 1, FebrualY 1972

probably show higher proportions of men marriages to 23.4 years for Jewish mar­and women in the youngest and oldest riages, while the corresponding thirdage groups for each religious denomina- quartile among nonwhite brides was 24.3tion (except among young nonwhites). years, with Catholic brides the youngest,

The median age at first marriage of 23.1 years. The interquartile age rangewhite brides was 20.2 years for those in of white brides in Catholic ceremoniesProtestant, 21.1 years in Catholic, and (3.2 years) was less than that among21.9 years in Jewish ceremonies (Table brides in Protestant ceremonies (3.68). For first-married white brides in civil years); smaller still was the age rangeceremonies, the median age was youngest for brides in Jewish ceremonies (2.4of all-20.1 years. The median ages at years). White grooms who were marriedfirst marriage of white grooms were 22.2 in Catholic ceremonies also showed ayears, 22.6 years, and 23.7 years for smaller interquartile range (3.5 years)those wed in Protestant, Catholic, and than those in Protestant ceremonies (4.2Jewish ceremonies respectively. The me- years); however, unlike the situationdian age at first marriage for white among brides in Jewish marriages, thegrooms in civil ceremonies was 22.5 grooms had an age range (4.0 years) notyears. Nonwhite brides entering their very different from that for all males.first marriage had a median age of 20.9 The interquartile age range for non­years, while grooms had a median of white brides markedly exceeded that for22.8 years. These levels were about one- white brides. Here, as among whitethird of a year above those for their women, the Catholic ceremony age rangewhite counterparts. was smaller than that for Protestant.

It can be seen from Table 8 that three- The middle half for nonwhite womenquarters of all white brides were not in Protestant marriages spanned 5.3older than 22.5 years, with the range years, compared with 3.9 years for thoseextending from 22.2 years for Protestant in Catholic ceremonies. The differences

TABLE S.-Median and Quartile Ages at First Marriage by Category of Ceremony and Color,Maryland Resident Brides and Grooms: 1969

BRIDES GROOMSColor and Number Numbercategory of First Third of First Third

of ceremony mar- quar- Me- quar- mar- quar- Me- quar-riages tile dian tile riages tile dian tile

WHITE

All marriages 23,443 18.8 20.6 22.5 21,589 20.7 22.4 24.9Protestant • . 13,078 18.6 20.2 22.2 12,117 20.4 22.2 24.6Catholic. 5,869 19.5 21.1 22.7 5,312 21.2 22.6 24.7Jewish . 978 21.0 21.9 23.4 822 22.2 23.7 26.2Other. 425 19.5 21.2 22.8 347 21.3 23.2 26.0Civil. 3,093 18.4 20.1 22.8 2,991 20.4 22.5 26.0NONWHITE

All marriages 4,"941 19.0 20.9 24.3 4,861 20.8 22.8 26.7Protestant • 3,885 18.9 20.9 24.2 3,796 20.7 22.7 26.6Catholic. 396 19.2 20.8 23.1 393 21.2 22.9 25.6Other. 36 17.8 21.0 24.0 26 19.9 21.5 23.5Civil. ._.. . 624 19.1 21.0 26.9 646 21.1, 23.4 28.6

Religious and Civil Marriages

in the range of the middle half for non­white grooms were similar.

DISCUSSION

The Maryland age at marriage databy category of religious ceremony agreealmost exactly with the findings on thistopic obtained in the nationwide "Growthof American Family" survey. In thisnational probability sample conductedin 1960, white wives 18 to 39 years oldwho reported their religious preferenceas Protestant had an average age of 20.0years when first married, compared with21.0 years for Catholic wives and 22.0years for Jewish wives (Whelpton,Campbell, and Patterson, 1966, p. 320).Similarly, a study based on religiousaffiliation reported on the marriage rec­ords for Iowa found that on the averageCatholics married later than Protestants.The median age of all Catholic bridesin Iowa in 1953-57, 20.6 years, was 0.8year over the median for church-Protes­tant brides (brides reporting a specificProtestant denomination affiliation), and1.4 years over non-affiliated Protestantbrides (brides who indicated only "Prot­estant" affiliation).

One of the hypotheses advanced byBurchinal and Chancellor (1963) to ac­count for these differences was possiblederivation from the strong Catholicchurch position against intermarriage.As Catholics were a small minority inmost Iowa communities, a desire to avoida mixed marriage may have led to somepostponement of marriage. An explana­tion of this nature may also be logicallyextended to account for the higher ageat marriage among Jews, a much smallerminority group than Catholics. Whetherthe minority status of Catholics inMaryland can serve as an explanationof the differentials by religion in age atmarriage (which are similar to those inIowa) is questionable. In Maryland,Catholics constitute a much larger shareof the total population, and in some com­munities are the predominant element.

139

.• It seems possible that some of theobserved age differential by religion orcategory of ceremony may derive fromthe association between educational leveland age at first marriage. In general,the higher the educational attainment ofmen and women, the later the age atmarriage. United States census data for1960 indicated that men who had marriedbefore the age of 22 and women whohad married before the age of 19 yearstended to have lower educational levels(at the time of the census) than thosewho had married later in life (Carterand Glick, 1970, p. 93). More recentdata from the Current Population Sur­vey indicate that this pattern has con­tinued. Among white women who re­ported that their first marriage occurredbetween 1960 and 1964, for those whohad completed one to three years of highschool the proportion who had marriedwhile teenagers was 75 percent; forthose who had completed four years ofhigh school it was 50 percent; for thosewho had completed one to three yearsof college it was 33 percent; and forcollege graduates it was four percent(U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1969,Table 16).

The foregoing differences suggest thatthe strong role played by educationallevel may be reflected in the differentialsby age at first marriage for major re­ligious groups. Nationally, according tothe Census Bureau's 1957 survey, Jewshad achieved higher educational levelsthan members of the two Christiangroups (Goldstein, 1969). This wouldseem to support an interpretation of therole of the education variable, since themedian age at first marriage also is seento be higher. The heavy concentrationof Jewish brides in Maryland marryingat ages 21-24 years could very likelyreflect postponement of marriage untilthe completion of higher education (orspouse's higher education), rather thanfactors associated with religious status.On the other hand, the 1957 survey indi-

140 DEMOGRAPHY, volume 9, number I, February 1972

cated that educational attainment levelsof white Protestant men and womentended to be a bit higher than those ofCatholics. This runs contrary to the ex­pected pattern by age at marriage.

The Growth of American Family studyalso found that nationally white Protes­tants had somewhat more schooling thanCatholics. In 1960, 18 percent of allProtestant 18- to 39-year-old wives inthe sample were college-educated, com­pared to 12 percent among Catholicwives (Whelpton, Campbell, and Patter­son, 1966). The authors went on to ex­plore the association between educationand age at marriage within religiousgroups. It was found that at each level­of-education group Catholic wives hadmarried, on the average, at ages aboutone year older than had Protestant wives.Thus religion, as well as education, seemsto have an independent effect upon ageat marriage. Since a number of stateshave recently added an item on edu­cation (highest grade of school com­pleted) of bride and groom to the mar­riage certificate, the potential now existsfor multivariate analysis that will aidin resolving these complex relationships.

SUMMARY

Sociological studies, such as those byBurchinal and Chancellor, have indi­cated that among the characteristics ofthose who marry, religious preferencemust be considered one of the primedeterminants of marital norms. Cur­rently the marriage certificates of onlytwo states ascertain such information,but data appearing on those of otherstates do indicate the class of ceremony(religious, civil) and the title or denomi­nation of the religious officiant. For re­ligious marriages of single persons, ex­cept in the instance of intermarriage,such information ordinarily correspondsto religious affiliation.

Data for Maryland residents (includ­ing Marylanders who married out of

state) indicated that single brides andgrooms in Jewish ceremonies marriedlater than those in Catholic ceremonies,who in turn married at older ages thanpresumed Protestants. However, whenthe median age at marriage was high,the range of years in which half of allmarriages were concentrated was small.Thus, the differences by category of re­ligious ceremony showing up at earlyages were substantially larger than thedifferences at later ages. It would seemthat marriages at extremely young agescharacterize some groups much morethan others, but no group has an unusu­ally high proportion of marriages at theupper age extremes.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The author wishes to thank Dr. BettieF. Rogerson for a critical review of thispaper and to acknowledge gratefully thecooperation of the Bureau of Vital Sta­tistics, Delaware State Board of Health;Division of Vital Statistics, State ofWest Virginia Department of Health;Division of Data Processing, Common­wealth of Pennsylvania Department ofHealth; Bureau of Vital Records andHealth Statistics, Commonwealth of Vir­ginia Department of Health; and theMarriage License Bureau, the Districtof Columbia.

The staff of the Division of DataProcessing and the Division of Biosta­tistics of the Maryland Department ofHealth and Mental Hygiene renderedsignificant assistance with data prepara­tion and computation.

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