Marriage makes no sense for the modern male

[DanS]

Are Quebec's politicians by-and-large unmarried?

[KrazyHorse]

For those who don't want to be lmgtfy'd the upshot is that Qc has a marriage rate per annum per 1000 population of 2.8, the rest of Canada 5.3 and the US 7.5

The rate of cohabitation in QC is also much higher.

[KrazyHorse]

Are Quebec's politicians by-and-large unmarried?

a) What do politicians have to do with respectable society?
b) Some are, some aren't. The media doesn't make much of a deal of it. The last leader of the Parti Quebecois was a coke-addicted gay man, so I'm guessing no, in his case. The 3 current major party leaders are, according to wikipedia (but I had to look it up in all but one case). There is far less scrutiny of the family situation of politicians in Quebec (and even in the ROC) than there is in the US.

[KrazyHorse]

Dan, I was seriously shocked when I moved to the US as to how normal marriage was considered to be.

By the way, a crude calculation suggests that with a marriage rate of 2.8/1000 at most 45% of people will ever be married (2 * 2.8 * 80 / 1000), and even this is an overestimate, as it ignores double counting of people married more than once.

[DanS]

a) Politicians tend to pander to respectable society's sensibilities regarding appearance. That's the hypothesis anyway.

b) Interesting.

[Kontiki]

I'm in a bind here. Two people are saying that respectable society in Quebec doesn't follow the general rules that I outlined. However, no evidence has been presented.

I'm assuming you didn't read the article I linked to on the first page of this thread. Granted, it's two years old but I doubt there's been a serious reversal of the trend.

[DanS]

You're right. I missed it. The way the article is written, it's sort of the exception that proves the rule -- it stresses how Quebec is different than other places.

[KrazyHorse]

Anecdotally, I'm one of the youngest of my generation in my family (i.e. my cousins + my 2 siblings), which has ~30 people of my generation on one side and ~10 on the other. I'm now 29. I got married at 26. There were only 2 marriages in my family in my generation before me, and there has been 1 since. On the other hand, there are more than 20 children in the next generation, only 4 of them in a married household (3 born in marriage, one born out of marriage)

[Jon Miller]

That actually gives a higher percentage of married couples in your family having children.

Especially since you haven't (you are young... do you plan on having kids?).

JM

[Jon Miller]

How many of the other ~36 people have been in or are in long term stable relationships?

Even better if you can break it down into 5 years+ and 10 years+.

JM

[KrazyHorse]

A higher percentage of married couples having children....than what?

And yes, I plan to have (probably) 2 children, with the first coming in 3 or 4 years (at a guess; I want a stable income at a somewhat established job).

That would get me to 35 with two young children and 5 years in a job. I'd be happy with that situation.

[KrazyHorse]

I have no idea how many are currently cohabiting. At a guess, 10-12. One of the married couples cohabited for 10 years (and had a child) before getting married 3-4 years ago. The one that just recently got married cohabited for 4 years before getting married. I did not cohabit (well, not for longer than a month, anyway), but that was due entirely to the fact that we were in two different cities until right before we got married. If we'd been in the same city we would probably have cohabited for 2-3 years before marriage.

[Jon Miller]

I think a fairly large percentage in the US cohabit for a year or two before marriage. Often while engaged?

The difference is cohabitting with little intention towards marriage in the future.

Point was that married members of your family are more likely to have children than unmarried members. It seems like ~10% of your generation is currently producing 25% of the next generation.

JM

[DanS]

KH: Those really are amazing numbers, I have to admit. My family is about opposite.

[KrazyHorse]

I think a fairly large percentage in the US cohabit for a year or two before marriage. Often while engaged?

The difference is cohabitting with little intention towards marriage in the future.

Point was that married members of your family are more likely to have children than unmarried members. It seems like ~10% of your generation is currently producing 25% of the next generation.

JM

a) 20%
b) I don't know why this is a surprise. The steps to marriage are twofold: finding a partner and actually getting married. Many/most of the unmarried people are not in a stable relationship (well, not stable in the sense of being willing to live with the other person). Why would these people have children? The more interesting question is whether or not cohabiting couples have children. It's pretty obvious that they do, from my family's example (only a few of the children are from non-cohabiters; some were never cohabiting with the other parent, while some were previously cohabiting and are now broken up). As far as real statistics go, I wouldn't be surprised if more married people have children than cohabiters (even controlling for age), but I doubt the trend is that strong. My generation in Quebec does not view marriage as the normal state of a stable couple.