Changing Patterns of Remarriage

Abstract

Beginning with a brief review of recent trends in remarriage rates, this article focuses on the variation in these rates as measured in the 1980 and 1985 June Current Population Surveys. For reasons of data quality, the focus is on rates observed in the five years before each of these surveys. After a discussion of the demographic composition of separation cohorts as a factor affecting remarriage rates and ultimately the structure of remarriages, the article next examines proportional-hazard estimates of differentials in remarriage rates. Finally, using life-table procedures, the study draws out some of the important implications of differing remarriage rates by estimating expected proportions who will ever remarry.