Australian Social Trends Podcast
Episode 2 - "Love Me Do”
Highlights from an article of the same name from the March 2012 issue of Australian Social Trends.
TRANSCRIPT
Dave: Hello listeners and welcome to the third episode of the Australian Social Trends Podcasts, brought to you direct from the Australian Bureau of Statistics. This is Dave, and I'm joined by Donna. G'day Donna, how are you?
Donna: Pretty good thanks Dave, how are you?
Dave: Not too bad at all. Anyway, let's get straight to business. Today's episode is titled 'Love Me Do' and Donna is going to talk us through the highlights of an article of the same name from our March issue of Australian Social Trends. So Donna, this 'Love Me Do' article looks at trends in marriage and divorce between 1990 and 2010. Now if we just hold off on the divorce aspect for a moment, what are some of the big trends in regards to marriage over the last couple of decades? Are more people tying the knot these days?
Donna: Well Dave, that is a good question and there are several different ways to answer it. Strictly speaking, 2010 did see the most registered marriages recorded in any one year in Australia, but given our increasing population, that is hardly surprising. If we look at the crude marriage rate however (that is, the number of marriages registered in a calendar year per 1,000 estimated resident population), we can see that there was actually a decline between 1990 and 2010 - from 6.9 to 5.4 marriages per 1,000 people.
Dave: Right, so while there were more registered marriages in 2010, the proportion of the population getting married was actually smaller.
Donna: That's right.
Dave: Okay, so Australians are now less likely to marry than previously... Are more people choosing to live together without getting married?
Donna: Well Dave, while the marriage rate has been in decline there certainly has been an increase in the proportion of people living in de facto relationships. For example, the proportion of people aged 20-29 years living in de facto relationships has more than doubled since 1992 to sit at around one in five in 2010. And this trend wasn't only evident among younger people, the proportion of people aged 40-49 years living in de facto relationships also nearly doubled to nearly one in ten in 2010.
Dave: But that is not to say that these de facto relationships are replacing marriage, in fact I imagine that many of these relationships might be considered to actually be preceding marriage. Would that be a fair assumption?
Donna: Well that is actually something that we can see in the numbers here Dave. In 2006-07, of the 1.6 million people aged 18 years and over who were in a de facto relationship, just over two fifths of them expected to enter into a registered marriage with their current partner. And from another perspective, by 2010, almost eight in ten of all registered marriages were preceded by a period of living together, up from just over half back in 1992.
Dave: But whether they were preceding registered marriages or not, de facto relationships were more common in 2010 than in 1992.
Donna: True.
Dave: And have we seen a trend of delaying marriage over this period?
Donna: We have Dave, we can see that Australians in 2010 were delaying marriage and starting their families later in life when compared with Australians from 1990. If you look at people getting married for the first time, there'll be some which are quite young and others relatively old, but to get a sense of broad change we look at the age of those in the very middle, or the median age.
Dave: Okay.
Donna: And the trend is that this age is getting older. Since 1990, the median age at first marriage increased by three years for men (to 29.6 years) and three and a half years for women (to 27.9 years). But it's not just an increase in de facto relationships behind these trends. The reasons for delaying marriage vary from person to person, but they could include people spending more time studying while in their early to mid 20s or that some people are waiting to be more financially stable. Also young adults now tend to stay living with their parents until later in life for a variety of reasons, mainly financial, or because they find it convenient or they just enjoy living at home.
Dave: Well if you are lucky enough to be in that situation, it's probably not a bad way to save some money. Anyway, one of the other trends over the last 20 years that the article touches on relates to the type of marriage ceremony, i.e. whether people were having a religious or a civil ceremony. So what do we see in this respect Donna?
Donna: Well, back in 1990 more people had religious ceremonies, whereas in 2010, more people had civil ceremonies. So in 1990 over half of all registered marriages were religious ceremonies, but this dropped away by 2010 to less than a third. Looked at another way, in 2010, over two thirds of all marriage ceremonies were conducted by civil celebrants. And just while we're on the topic of ceremonies Dave, I must just mention a couple points about the most popular time of year.
Dave: Certainly, go for it.
Donna: Between 1990 and 2010, spring and autumn were the most popular seasons in which to marry, with people generally avoiding the winter months. Although this wasn't true for the Northern Territory where couples did prefer to marry in June, July or August to avoid unpredictable summer tropical weather.
Dave: Well that certainly makes sense.
Donna: In 1990, September recorded the most marriages nationally, but in 2010, October was the most popular month in which to wed.
Generally in 2010, Saturday was the most popular day to get married. However, possibly due to the memorable date (10-10-10), Sunday 10 October saw the most weddings in one day for that year with 2,454 couples tying the knot.
Dave: That's a lot of weddings. I must say at this point I am quite intrigued by a lot of the points your making as I am actually in the fortunate position of being engaged and we're getting married later this year. It's really quite interesting seeing how our circumstances fit into (or don't fit into) the trends we've been discussing. All that aside though, I am getting a little worried because I know that you have some juicy separation and divorce stats as well! So Donna, just how long do you think I'll be able to stay married then?
Donna: Well since we've been looking at averages, I guess it depends how average you are! It's important to consider that that these averages are just that, averages, and there are a wide variety of individual circumstances that are hidden behind them. So just because this is the data, doesn't mean you'll line up with it Dave. That said, generally the length of marriage before separation or divorce has increased over the last couple of decades. It's no longer "the 7 year itch" as by 2010 people were having on average 8.8 years of marriage before separation, and 12.3 years before divorce. So if you follow on from these numbers, you should be able to get a few good years under the belt.
Dave: Haha, thanks Donna, good to know. So I guess it is more of the 9 year itch and the 12 year scratch then?... No... Leaving me hanging here?
Donna: We'll see if that catches on...
Dave: I'm sure it will. Haha.
Donna: It's also worth noting that at the same time, the crude divorce rate (which is the number of divorces per 1,000 estimated resident population) also decreased from 2.5 divorces to 2.3 divorces.
Dave: One of the important issues to consider when we look at divorce is of course children, who may be affected by the break-up of their family. Do a lot of divorces involve children Donna?
Donna: Well in 2010, around half (or 49%) of divorces did involve children. This proportion was lower than the 56% it had been in 1990, although it had been relatively stable since the early 2000s. In 2010, one in five children had a parent, usually their father, living elsewhere, and nearly three quarters of these children who had a parent living elsewhere were living in one parent families.
Dave: Thank you very much for your time today Donna. Unfortunately we'll have to leave it there.
Donna: Not a problem, thanks Dave. If our listeners are keen to learn more, then they can access the full 'Love Me Do' article on the Australian Social Trends section of the ABS website at www.abs.gov.au/socialtrends
Dave: Cheers Donna. And of course, to be kept up to date with our podcast episodes, be sure to subscribe to this series either via that web address that Donna just gave us, or via iTunes.
Thanks again to all our listeners, and hopefully everyone has enjoyed this episode. Our next episode should roughly coincide with the release of our June Australian Social Trends publication, so keep your eyes peeled for that as we'll have a whole new bunch of articles to discuss. In the mean time if you have, or haven't enjoyed this podcast feel free to drop us a line and let us know via . Thanks for listening.