Socio-Professional and Educational Homogamy: Situation and Evolution Across Marriage Cohorts

Abstract

In 1999, close to one in three couples were composed of two people sharing the same social status; this is two times greater than if the couples had been formed at random. When the changes to the socio-professional structure are taken into account, the evolution of homogamy remains uncertain: it is difficult to say whether men and women today form relationships with a partner of the same socio-professional category more or less often than in the past. Within the majority of couples the partners also have identical levels of education. However, the proportion of couples composed of two people with the same level of education is lower for recent marriages than for those formed during the 1950s. This evolution results in part from changes in education, and in particular to the rise in the level of education. Independently from this structural effect, there has been a downward trend in educational homogamy.Homogamy, Union, Socio-Professional, Education, Level of Education