Publication details
Možnosti výskumu procesu sobášnosti na Slovensku a v jeho regiónoch od konca 19. do polovice 20. storočia
| Title in English | Possibilities for research into the marriage process in Slovakia and its regions from the late 19th to the mid-20th century |
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| Authors | |
| Year of publication | 2025 |
| Type | Article in Proceedings |
| Conference | Populačné štúdie Slovenska 18 |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| web | link na publikaci |
| Keywords | nuptiality; demographic indicators; second half of the 19th and first half of the 20th century; Slovakia; counties; districts |
| Description | Nuptiality is an important demographic process closely linked to the reproduction process. In the late 19th and first half of the 20th century, the population of Slovakia was characterized by a low age at first marriage, as well as the almost universality of married life. The study focuses on methodological options for analyzing marriage rate at the level of counties or districts of Slovakia in the late 19th century and the first half of the 20th century. The analysis is based on officially published historical data in Source Works and Statistical Yearbooks, as well as the results of population censuses, which allow the construction of several demographic indicators of marriage rate. The basic starting point is the calculation of the gross marriage rate as an elementary indicator of marriage activity in the population. For a more detailed analysis, it is possible to use some more sophisticated indicators, such as age-specific marriage rates by gender and marital status, which allow identifying differences in the age dynamics of marriage between men and women. An important synthetic indicator is also the aggregate marriage rate, which provides an idea of the overall intensity of marriages during the reproductive period. Both indicators are also linked to the possibility of constructing indicators of the timing of marriage, in the form of the average age at marriage or the average age at first marriage for men and women separately. Based on census data, a method of calculating the indicator known as the Singulate Mean Age at Marriage (SMAM), which is analogous to the average age at first marriage, was further presented. It is also possible to determine from these data the proportion of permanently single men and women at the end of reproductive age (50 years), which allows us to capture the extent of celibacy and changes in preferences for marital behavior. However, due to the nature and availability of the necessary classifications, all of these indicators cannot be calculated for the entire analyzed period of the second half of the 19th and first half of the 20th century. The study therefore also focuses on the limitations in question and especially presents the possibilities of regional analyses at the level of counties and, after the establishment of an independent Czechoslovakia or the Slovak Republic, at the level of districts. |