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Marriages and divorces

By Hilde Gundersen, Berit Hauan and Karolina Nordgård

We all know that there are more divorces now than what we found for example 50 years ago. From 1961-65 there were 2496 divorces in Norway, while the number of divorces has increased to 9346 in 1998. Cohabitation, education and the fact that people marry more than once, are some of the factors that influence on marriage age. We therefore have a reason to believe that there has been a decrease in the number of marriages during the last 50 years. Our project will be to find out whether Vennesla differs from the rest of the country when it comes to marriage age, the number of marriages and divorces.

Marriages and divorces in Vennesla

According to the Population Register in Vennesla there were from September 1998 to September 1999, 108 marriages. 46 couples were married in the Lutheran Church, here in Vennesla, 5 couples married in the Pentecostal Church and 4 couples married in Vennesla Free Church. We can assume that the number of couples married in the Registry Office is low, because there were only 243 such marriages in the entire Kristiansand area last year. The rest of the investgated persons married in other municipalities or in other countries. It is then frightening to see that there were 50 couples who divorced the same year, and there were registered 80 separations. The divorce pattern in the whole country in 1995, was calculated to be a 47% divorce rate. We can see that Vennesla does not differ from the rest of the country.

Vest-Agder on the top

In Vest-Agder during the 1960s there were 874 marriages, but the number of marriages in 1997 had decreased to 814 marriages. When we consider the increased population, we can see that our hypothesis is true: There are fewer marriages in Norway now than before. A recent study made by Statistisk Sentralbyrå shows that Vest-Agder has a very high rate of marriages in proportion to the population. Average marriage age among women is today 28 years and 31 years for men. This confirms our assertion, since we know that the average marriage age was considerably lower earlier.

Different opinions

We questioned people in different age groups about their opinions when it comes to marriage, divorce and the appropriate marriage age. The young (18- 25 yearolds) believed that a person should get married in their 20s, and that a divorce was an alternative if their marriage did not work out. The middle-aged (30-50 yearolds) mostly had the same opinions as the younger. But they underlined that a divorce was a very bad alternative. They stressed that at the time when they got married, a divorce was out of the question. Later, when they had seen changes in society, they believed that a divorce can be a solution. The elderly (60 yearolds and upwards) agreed that the marriage age should be around 20 to 25, but they thought that a divorce would be totally out of the question. They believed that possible reasons for the high numbers of divorces today, could be that society demands self-realization instead of the priority of the family life. Other causes can be that the prosperity growth leads to large material needs, which can cause economical difficulties.

The statistics are inaccurate?

Most of the people we talked to were very surprised with the fact that 50 marriages were broken in the last year. We think however, it is important to mention that the statistics do not complete the picture of broken marital relationships. The numbers of cohabitant relations are not included in the
Statistics.

Sources:

- Statistisk Sentralbyrå (Internet)
- Population Register
-The Priest Office in Vennesla
- Pentecostal Church
- Mayor's Office
- Illustrations: Karolina Nordgård

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