Table 2.
Descriptive statistics of the 11 ideal types of couple formation trajectories
| Traditional pathways of couple formation | Timeless trajectories of couple formation | New couple formation approaches | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Young married couples | Gradually married couples | Married in the eyes of God | Perpetual singles | LAT | Separated then married | Cohabiting first unions | Cohabiting second unions | Separated with a second gradual union | Late bloomers | Singles with experience | Total | |
| Gender | ||||||||||||
| Women | 70% | 46% | 64% | 34% | 48% | 62% | 55% | 55% | 53% | 41% | 43% | 51% |
| Men | 30% | 54% | 36% | 66% | 52% | 38% | 45% | 45% | 47% | 59% | 57% | 49% |
| Generation | ||||||||||||
| 1948–1959 | 68% | 48% | 43% | 31% | 31% | 32% | 9% | 10% | 14% | 20% | 23% | 32% |
| 1960–1969 | 25% | 27% | 30% | 33% | 27% | 36% | 33% | 28% | 24% | 33% | 27% | 29% |
| 1970–1984 | 8% | 25% | 26% | 36% | 42% | 32% | 58% | 62% | 62% | 47% | 50% | 38% |
| First child before age of 30 | ||||||||||||
| Yes | 94% | 87% | 92% | 10% | 39% | 89% | 71% | 60% | 35% | 43% | 21% | 58% |
| No | 6% | 13% | 8% | 90% | 61% | 11% | 29% | 40% | 65% | 57% | 79% | 42% |
| Age at first sexual relation | ||||||||||||
| < 18 | 50% | 40% | 36% | 36% | 40% | 61% | 58% | 67% | 55% | 36% | 48% | 47% |
| ≥ 18 | 50% | 60% | 64% | 64% | 60% | 39% | 42% | 33% | 45% | 64% | 52% | 53% |
| Nationality at birth | ||||||||||||
| French | 87% | 88% | 77% | 79% | 84% | 94% | 92% | 95% | 92% | 87% | 90% | 88% |
| Other | 13% | 12% | 23% | 21% | 16% | 6% | 8% | 5% | 8% | 13% | 10% | 12% |
| Religion | ||||||||||||
| Catholic - religion declared important | 22% | 22% | 32% | 16% | 17% | 17% | 14% | 14% | 17% | 18% | 19% | 19% |
| Catholic - religion declared not important | 50% | 46% | 34% | 33% | 38% | 54% | 41% | 43% | 42% | 42% | 39% | 42% |
| Muslim | 8% | 5% | 20% | 16% | 12% | 2% | 3% | 3% | 3% | 6% | 8% | 8% |
| Other religion | 4% | 6% | 7% | 7% | 4% | 4% | 4% | 3% | 4% | 5% | 5% | 5% |
| No religion | 16% | 21% | 6% | 29% | 28% | 23% | 38% | 37% | 34% | 29% | 29% | 26% |
| Relative level of education | ||||||||||||
| Low degree | 30% | 23% | 28% | 33% | 18% | 16% | 29% | 23% | 12% | 21% | 21% | 24% |
| Moderately low degree | 37% | 30% | 27% | 26% | 29% | 35% | 32% | 26% | 25% | 27% | 27% | 29% |
| Moderately high degree | 20% | 25% | 22% | 18% | 19% | 24% | 21% | 22% | 24% | 20% | 21% | 21% |
| High degree | 14% | 22% | 23% | 22% | 34% | 25% | 18% | 29% | 39% | 33% | 30% | 25% |
| Parent’s occupation | ||||||||||||
| I Higher Professionals and Managers | 6% | 10% | 15% | 14% | 16% | 12% | 13% | 20% | 24% | 19% | 19% | 14% |
| II Lower Professionals and Managers | 5% | 8% | 9% | 8% | 9% | 14% | 8% | 11% | 13% | 11% | 15% | 10% |
| IIIa Higher routine non-manual | 12% | 14% | 10% | 11% | 15% | 13% | 18% | 16% | 15% | 14% | 13% | 13% |
| IIIb Lower routine non-manual | 5% | 3% | 4% | 4% | 4% | 4% | 5% | 5% | 4% | 4% | 5% | 4% |
| IV Proprietors, artisans, farmers | 25% | 26% | 20% | 24% | 24% | 23% | 17% | 16% | 16% | 18% | 19% | 21% |
| V Lower technicians & supervisors | 6% | 7% | 3% | 6% | 4% | 7% | 7% | 6% | 8% | 8% | 7% | 6% |
| VI Skilled manual | 28% | 21% | 26% | 20% | 20% | 18% | 23% | 18% | 15% | 18% | 16% | 21% |
| VII Unskilled manual | 10% | 9% | 11% | 11% | 6% | 7% | 6% | 4% | 3% | 4% | 6% | 7% |
| Inactive or missing | 3% | 3% | 1% | 4% | 3% | 1% | 4% | 3% | 1% | 3% | 1% | 3% |
| Observations | 14% | 12% | 5% | 14% | 5% | 7% | 10% | 8% | 7% | 10% | 9% | 100% |