Based on the method of reconstructing families by using parish registers, numerous micro-analytical demographic studies were carried out in Spain, mainly during the 1970s and 1980s. Thanks to these studies, it was possible to compare the reproductive behaviour of the different Spanish regions and to better outline the demographic structures. A synthesis of these results from a temporal perspective was carried out by Manuel Ardit Lucas. He found four large areas throughout the Modern Age according to the average age of marriage for women: inland Spain, with the lowest age of 21; Aragon, Catalonia and the Valencian Country, with 22; the Basque Country and Asturias-Cantabria, with 23; and Galicia, with 24, the highest age. In the 18th century, age increased by one year in all regions except for the Basque Country and the Cantabrian area, which increased by two years, thus equalling the Galicians at 25 years of age. As a particularity, in Galicia, the age of women was higher than that of men, although, obviously, this was not something absolutely general. In Spain in the first half of the 19th century, there were no major changes, although according to census data throughout the century, in contrast to what happened with celibacy, the age of marriage was falling throughout the country, especially among men. Women married slightly younger but continued to do so earlier, on average 24 years of age compared to 27.5 or 28 for men. This was close to the age that characterised the Western model of marriage.

Collection: Statistics

Project: 4. Family, daily life and social inequality in Europe.

Chronology: XVI, XVII, XVIII

Scope: Secondary Education, Baccalaureate, University

Resource type: Statistics

Format: Table

Source: Ardit Lucas, Manuel: “Microanálisis demográfico en larga duración: el caso de España”, en Karmele Zarraga Sangroniz, Manuel González Portilla (Coords): IV Congreso de la Asociación de Demografía Histórica. Vol. 2: Pensamiento demográfico, coyuntura y microanálisis, Bilbao, UPV, 1999, pp. 265-266

Language: Spanish

Date: 1999

Owner: Francisco García González (Modernalia)

Copyright: © Manuel Ardit Lucas © UPV

Abstract: Differences between the ages of men and women at marriage in inland Spain, 16th-18th centuries

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