Turid Noack

The Demographics of Same-Sex Marriages in Norway and Sweden

The present study investigates the demographics of same-sex marriages—that is, registered partnerships—in Norway and Sweden. We give an overview of the demographic characteristics of the spouses of these partnerships, study patterns of their divorce risks, and compare the dynamics of same-sex couples with those of heterosexual marriages. We use longitudinal information from the population registers of the two countries that cover all persons in partnerships. Our demographic analyses include information on characteristics such as age, sex, geographic background, experience of previous opposite-sex marriage, parenthood, and educational attainment of the partners involved. The results show that in many respects, the distributions of married populations on these characteristics differ by the sex composition of the couples. Patterns in divorce risks are rather similar in same-sex and opposite-sex marriages, but divorce-risk levels are considerably higher in same-sex marriages. The divorce risk for female partnerships is double that for male partnerships.

Love or Money? : Marriage Intentions among Young Cohabitors in Norway and Sweden

Using data from Sweden and Norway on cohabitors aged 25 to 35, we examine the association between socio-economic resources, relationship quality and commitment and cohabitors’ marriage intentions. The individualization process, i.e. the arguably growing importance of individual choice, leads us to assume that relationship assessments are more important predictors of marriage intentions than socio-economic variables. Nonetheless, multivariate results show that university education and having a partner whose education is higher than one’s own increase the likelihood that cohabitors intend to marry. Likewise, being satisfied with and committed to the union is positively related to having marriage plans. Separate analyses for men and women reveal that whereas commitment is positively related to women’s marriage intentions, men’s marriage intentions are significantly more influenced by their own education, income, as well as the income of their partners. In this sense, one conclusion to be drawn is that both love and money are associated with cohabitors’ intention to marry.