Marriage patterns in Egypt

Magued I Osman, Egyptian Cabinet Information and Decision Support Centre (IDSC)
Hanan Girgis, Egyptian Cabinet Information and Decision Support Centre (IDSC)

Marriage is one of the social systems that significantly affects the form and structure of populations. Marriage patterns are affected by the characteristics and social and economic conditions of the population. Marriage is linked to several other phenomena such as celibacy, divorce and re-marriage. This paper highlights the marriage patterns, the characteristics of the population that affect them and other associated phenomena. A wealth index was developed to reveal the relation between marriage patterns and socioeconomic level. A new test was used to test the similarity of age at first marriage percentile curves. Data reveal that the socioeconomic level affects the patterns of marriage and related phenomena and that age at first marriage differ in rural from urban areas. Divorce statistics of 2006 shows that 14267 divorces were between couples with children and marriage duration less than 20 years resulted in the disintegration of at least 26079 children’s households.