Study: Changing role of education in the marriage market in Canada and the United States

The tendency of men and women with the same educational level to be married to one another has increased in both Canada and the United States over the last three decades, according to a new study based on census data.

In Canada, 54% of couples younger than 35 had the same level of education in 2001, up from 42% in 1971. In the United States, 55% of marriages among young adults consisted of couples with the same level of education in 2000, up from 49% in 1970.

Changes in the relative supply of more and less educated partners could potentially contribute to the rise in the level of educational homogamy (that is, the tendency of like to marry like). In both Canada and the United States, average educational attainment rose for both sexes over the three decades, but much more so for women than for men.

In 2001, 24% of wives and 19% of husbands finished university education in Canada, compared with 4% and 10% in 1971. Wives now have a higher average educational level than their husbands, while the opposite was true three decades ago. The United States also experienced a similar change.

However, this study found that these changes in the distribution of educational levels for both wives and husbands accounted for only a small portion of the increase in educational homogamy over the three decades in both countries.

Rather, the rise in the overall level of educational homogamy mainly reflects the fact that men and women are deliberately basing their choice for a mate more and more on level of education. In other words, there has been an increase in the level of educational homogamy over and above what would be expected from the narrowed gender gap in educational attainment.

The rise in educational homogamy, along with increased selection into marriage based on education, has been a potent force underlying rising inequality in earnings in both countries between families at the low end of the income scale and those at the high end.

Intermarriage rare across more than two educational levels

In both countries, intermarriage across education levels occurs primarily between education levels that are adjacent. Intermarriage across more than two educational levels is rare.

For instance, 54% of Canadian young couples had the same educational level in 2001. However, 33% of couples differed by one educational level, while only 12% of couples differed by two educational levels. Less than 2% of couples differed by more than two educational levels.

Educational homogamy has been rising mainly because intermarriage between adjacent education levels has been declining both at the top and bottom of the educational hierarchy.

Declining intermarriage between those with university degrees and those with less education was a major factor in both countries. In Canada, the rate of intermarriage between the university educated and those with only some post-secondary education fell by 38%; in the United States, the rate fell by 45%.

Similarly, the intermarriage rate between high school graduates and those who had completed less than high school fell by 30% in the United States and by 58% in Canada.

Overall trend reflected different patterns for men and women

While the average couple was more likely to be in an educationally homogamous marriage in 2001 than in 1971, the overall trend reflected very different patterns for men and women.

The rapid increase in educational attainment of women relative to men implies declining opportunities for women to marry better educated men. But it implies rising opportunities for men to marry more educated women.

There was a large decline in the share of homogamous marriages among university educated women. In the United States, the decline was 8 percentage points, and in Canada almost 17 percentage points.

By 2001, only 53% of young Canadian university-educated married women had partners with university degrees. In contrast, 68% of university educated men were married to university educated women in 2001, more than twice the proportion of 29% in 1971.

At the other end of the educational spectrum, the share of male high school graduates who married better educated women, for example, rose from 12% to 40% in the United States over the three decades. In Canada, it quadrupled from 13% to 56%.

Among female high school graduates, the percentage marrying up increased on a much smaller scale over the three decades from 27% to 29% in the United States, and from 30% to 41% in Canada.

Overall, rising education levels have improved the marriage market for men much more than for women.

Net of the changes in educational attainment of wives and husbands, there was a small increase in intermarriage in the 1990s between university graduates and those with some post-secondary education for both sexes in Canada, and between female university graduates and men with some post-secondary education in the United States.

This is the reverse of the trends in the 1970s and 1980s, suggesting that levels of educational homogamy among the better educated may be stabilizing.

The research paper "The changing role of education in the marriage market: Assortative marriage in Canada and the United States since the 1970s" is now available as part of the Analytical Studies Branch Research Paper Series (11F0019MIE2007299, free) from the Analytical Studies module of our website.

Related studies from the Business and Labour Market Analysis Division can be found under Update on Analytical Studies Research (11-015-XIE, free) from the Publications module or our website.

For more information, or to enquire about the concepts, methods or data quality of this release, contact Feng Hou (613-951-4337) or John Myles (416-946-5886), Business and Labour Market Analysis Division.