NSCB - Statistically Speaking... Are Marriage Patterns of Pinoys Changing?

Are Marriage Patterns of Pinoys Changing?²

It’s February once again and love is in the air. It is a popular notion that love and marriage are synonymous. Others may disagree. At any rate, I do believe that in our culture, marriages are based on love and vice versa. So what better way to talk about the affairs of the heart in this love month, than discuss statistics on marriages?

We Filipinos cherish marriages and attach religious values to it, especially among Roman Catholics. “Ang pinagbuklod ng Diyos ay hindi pwedeng paghiwalayin ng tao”, so they say. Through generations and as taught by our Lolos and Lolas, the husband and wife must nurture the relationship and strengthen the marital bond between them, and pass on the same values to their children. This though, does not necessarily go together with the “lavish” and “grandiose” wedding rites being held nowadays. But has the concept of marriage undergone changes over the years? Is the “until death do us part” syndrome still there? Has modernization process in society such as education and economic participation affected women’s entry into marriage? Are our youth now changing their attitudes towards marriage?

As statistics from the 2000 Census of Population and Housing show, marriages no longer last for life
(Table 1). Of the 57.1 million population 10 years old and over, one percent or 558,023 individuals are either divorced or separated. Forty four percent (25.1 M) are single; 45.7% (26.1M) are married; 4.1% (2.4M) are widowed while 2.4 M or 4.3% are common-law or are in live-in unions or arrangements without the benefit of a marriage ceremony. Studies have shown that marriages or union formations and nuptiality patterns, specifically first marriages are important determinants of fertility, given that most births occur within marriage ³. In other words, age at first marriage plays an important role in determining fertility levels.

Demographers view that in order to achieve a replacement level of fertility ⁴, the level of marital fertility must be accompanied by a rise in age at first marriage. Delayed marriage for women may also be viewed to result in the increasing contribution of women to development efforts. By postponing marriage, more women can pursue higher education and participate more actively in economic activities. It is in this context that we discuss level of marital formation and age at first marriage together.

Statistics from the 2003, 1998 and 1993 National Demographic and Health Surveys ⁵ conducted by the National Statistics Office, show that the proportion of women 15-49, who were either in formal or informal unions at the time of the survey, went up by 4.0 percentage points from 59.6% in 1993 to 63.6% in 2003 (Table 2). In contrast, those who remain single went down by 4.5 percentage points from a level of 36.7% in 1993 to 32.2% in 2003. In all survey periods, the proportion in both formal and informal unions start well below 10 percent among teenagers (15-19), increasing fast to more than 40 percent among women aged 20-24, and to more than 70 percent among women 25-29 years. This proportion reaches its peak at more than 87 percent among women 35-39 years and declines slightly thereafter, resulting from dissolution, primarily through widowhood.

Populations in which age at first marriage is low tend to be populations with early childbearing and high fertility. Trends in the age at which women marry as well as the proportions remaining single help explain trends in fertility. ⁶

Looking at the median age of first marriage by current age clearly indicates slight increases in age at first marriage across cohorts from 1993 to 2003, the highest increase at 0.6 years occurring among women aged 30-34 and 35-39 years (Table 3). Specifically, the changes in levels are as follows: from 22.0 to 22.2 years among women aged 25-29; from 21.7 to 22.3 among women aged 30-34; from 21.4 to 22.0 for women aged 35-39; from 21.5 to 21.6 among women aged 40-44; and from 21.6 to 21.9, among women aged 45-49 years. Another way of saying this is that between 1993 and 2003, Filipino women have delayed their entry into marriage, with one in three women aged 25-29, still single at the age of 25 in 2003.

A closer look at background characteristics of the married women reveal the following findings (Table 4):

Urban women marry somewhat later than rural women – In 2003, the median age at first marriage for urban women is 22.9 years while that for rural women is 20.9 years, a difference of almost 2 years which was also observed in 1993 and 1998.
Variations in age at first marriage exist by regions – In 2003, the median age at first marriage ranges from a high of 23.8 years in the National Capital Region to a low of 19.9 years in the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao. All regions show lower medians than the national average (22 years) except Ilocos (22.1), Central Luzon (22.1), CALABARZON (22.7) and Northern Mindanao (22.0).
Women with higher education marry later – There exists a positive relationship between age at first marriage and educational attainment. In 2003, the median value for women with no education is 18 years while women who reached elementary and high school show median values of 19.6 years and 21.2 years respectively.
Women belonging to higher economic status ⁷ marry later – Median values of age at first marriage is largest at 24.6 years for women belonging to the highest economic status and lowest at 19.7 for women belonging to the lowest economic status.

What surfaces in the above patterns is that the delay in marriage or an extended pre-adult independence period is associated with a relatively higher socio-economic background and more modern locale.

It is also worth noting that childbearing could be a major factor preventing women from participating actively in the labor market (Figure 1). This is exemplified in 2006, by the levelling off of labor force participation at the onset of childbearing (age 20-34) and reaching its peak at menopausal ages (45-54).

Relatedly, marriage statistics from the Civil Registration System ⁸ of the NSO show interesting findings as follows:

Most couples marry in May (Figure 2) - Contrary to the popular notion that women prefer to say “I do” in June, most couples get married in May. Is this a probable coincidence with fiesta celebrations? In 2003, one out of ten couples in the country got married in May with a daily average of 2,189 wedding rites, followed by a daily average of 2,051 ceremonies in December. The least number of couples took their marriage vows in August with a daily average of 1,033. Maybe because brides do not want their beautiful and expensive gowns to get soaked in the rain?
Women marry much earlier than men (Figure 3) -The number of teenage brides, below 20 years old, (80,085 or 13.5%) is more than four times the number of teenage grooms (19,829 or 3.3%). On the other hand, the number of older grooms aged 50 years old and over (20,216 or 3.4%) was twice the number of huling biyahe brides (9,288 or 1.6%). About four in ten brides got married when they were between 20-24 years old, while most grooms (32.3%) decided to “tie the knot” at ages 25-29. Quite interesting is the fact that men way past their golden years still got married with 1,149 grooms aged 75 years old and over contracting marriages, two times the number of brides na may asim pa in the same age group. Thanks to herbal medicines or is it “wonder viagra”?
Most matrimonial vows are solemnized by civil rites (Figure 4) - Two out of five marriages (41.3%) were solemnized under civil rites in 2003 followed by wedding ceremonies under the Roman Catholic Church (37.1%). Other marriages include rites under other religions (except Catholic) at 21.3 percent, Islam rites and tribal rites both at 0.2 percent.
Intermarriages of Pinays highest among Japanese nationals (Table 5) – In 2003, 2.9 percent of registered marriages (17,095) were intermarriages of Pinay brides and Pinoy grooms with foreign nationals. Of these marriages, the most number of marriages of Pinays were contracted with Japanese grooms (5,468), followed by Americans (3,002) and Australians (569). On the other hand, the highest number of intermarriages of Pinoy grooms, were contracted with Chinese brides (1,999), followed by Americans (514) and Japanese (155).

And now, let us examine what our Filipino youth think about marriage. In our society, marriage is considered a major social institution. However, in this information age, it seems that the attitudes of our youth toward cohabitation and sex related issues might raise concern as statistics from the 2002 Young Adult Fertility and Sexuality Study (YAFS 3) ⁹conducted among Filipino youth will show (Table 6). Around 18 percent of our youth agree to engage in live - in arrangements with no plan to marry, with values ranging from a low of 0.3 percent in ARMM to a high of 30.2 percent in Eastern Visayas. Most regions have values below the national average, except in National Capital Region (20.8), Ilocos (23.6), Southern Tagalog (19.6), Western Visayas (22.9), Eastern Visayas (30.2), SOCCSKARGEN (18.7) and Cordillera Administrative Region (21.5).

Likewise, around 24 percent of our young people approve of women having the “luxury of romance” without marriage or pre-marital sex (PMS), with the highest proportion in Eastern Visayas (29.6), and lowest in ARMM (6.9). Findings also show higher percentages of youth approving of men having PMS at 37.2 percent for the country, with the highest proportion of youth’s approval in NCR (42.7) and lowest in ARMM (17.7).

Take note too that, 40 percent of the youth would support a bill to legalize divorce in the Philippines, with the highest “vote” in ARMM at 93.3 percent and lowest “vote” in Bicol Region at 29.9 percent. I can just imagine how some members of our society will react. “Is this how we are raising our youth?”

This may come as a surprise, but on sexual behavior, around 20 percent of Pinoy youth surveyed, had been engaged in pre-marital sex (Table 7). A closer look into the PMS experience, reveals higher figures for males (31.2%) than females (15.9%). Engagement in PMS was highest for Metro Manila male youth (41.8%) and lowest for youth in Cagayan Valley (18.4%) while it was highest for Eastern Visayas female youth (22.9%) and lowest in ARMM female youth (3%). Is PMS now becoming a phenomenon?

It is also evident that the character of union among Filipino youth is changing because formal marriage has declined and cohabitation has increased. ¹⁰ Highlights of the study done as part of the YAFS 3 Working Paper Series (Table 8), reveal the following: a) Some of those who formally married have cohabited prior to the wedding; b) Of those who were married in 1994 (26%), almost half (47%) were in live-in arrangement before the formal marriage. In 2002, this proportion increased to 54%, consequently reducing the proportion of those who formally married without going through a cohabitation episode.

The statistics as presented here reveal changing marriage characteristics of our Filipino women and most importantly the changing attitudes of our youth. There are policy implications - Opportunities for education and economic activity should be increased because such opportunities result in delay in marriages among women. Similarly, although the increasing cohabitation among Filipino youth may still be considered conservative compared to the Western world, nevertheless, this should be cause for concern. Maybe we should motivate our youth to engage in more productive activities by providing them with better education opportunities than let them be active in sexual activities? Calling on our policy makers…

In closing, how long do Pinoy marriages last? To find out, maybe in the next census or survey, we should ask the currently married population, the duration of their marriages or unions. Is it silver or gold? And as the Araw ng Mga Puso draws near, and the word love brings to mind different images, impressions and emotions, questions of “How do I love thee?” abound. Say it with roses? Dinner by candle-light? Moonlight and kisses? Still, the best advice I can recall, is to maintain your compassion as they say, love is about compassion and gentleness. Nah, Pare, I did not say passion! And that, my dear folks, is apart from honoring each other with love, kindness and respect!

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Reactions and views are welcome thru email to the author at lv.castro@nscb.gov.ph.

_______________
¹ Secretary General of the National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB) and Chairman of the Statistical Research and Training Center (SRTC). He holds a Ph. D. in Statistics from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, USA and has taught mathematics and statistics at the University of the Philippines. He is also a past president of the Philippine Statistical Association.

² This article was written by Lina V. Castro (lv.castro@nscb.gov.ph), Director IV of the Social Statistics Office and concurrent Director of the Programs, Policies and Standards Office (PPSO) of the NSCB. The author thanks Marymel A. Martillan, Jessamyn O. Encarnacion, Candido J. Astrologo, Jr. and Noel S. Nepomuceno for their assistance in writing the article.

³ Some references, e.g. by Charles Hirscman and Ronald Rindfuss, 1982. The Sequence and Timing of Family Formation Events in Asia. American Sociological Review 1982.

⁴ The level of fertility at which a cohort of women on the average are having only enough children to replace themselves and their partner in the population. In the country, a total fertility rate of 2.1 is considered to be replacement level.

⁵ Note that couples who are in legal and consensual unions are considered married in the NDHSs.

⁶ 1993, 1998 and 2003 National Demographic and Health Surveys, National Statistics Office

⁷ Based on a wealth index that captures presence of amenities like electricity, television, telephone, washing machine, refrigerator, vehicle, personal computer, etc. in the household.

⁸ Not adjusted for under-registration.

⁹ YAFS 3 is a project of the UP Population Institute and the Demographic and Research Foundation, Inc. conducted among Filipino youth aged 15-27.

¹⁰ YAFS 3 Working Paper Series, M. Kabamalam, New Path to Marriage: The significance of increasing cohabitation in the Philippines

Posted 11 February 2008.

Table 1. Total Population 10 Years Old and Over by Age Group, Sex, and Marital Status: 2000

Philippines	Total Population 10 Years Old and Over	MARITAL STATUS
Philippines	Total Population 10 Years Old and Over	Single	Married	Widowed	Divorced/ Separated	Common-Law/ Live-in	Unknown
Both Sexes	57,139,794	25,079,211	26,088,223	2,353,171	558,023	2,438,867	622,299
Proportion in percent		43.9%	45.7%	4.1%	1.0%	4.3%	1.1%
Male	28,610,321	13,278,500	13,016,984	571,789	202,007	1,231,142	309,899
Proportion in percent		46.4%	45.5%	2.0%	0.7%	4.3%	1.1%
Female	28,529,473	11,800,711	13,071,239	1,781,382	356,016	1,207,725	312,400
Proportion in percent		41.4%	45.8%	6.2%	1.2%	4.2%	1.1%

Source: 2000 Census of Population and Housing

Table 2. Percent distribution of women by current marital status, according to age,
Philippines: 1993,1998 and 2003

Age	Marital Status
	Never Married			Married			Living together			Widowed
	1993	1998	2003	1993	1998	2003	1993	1998	2003	1993	1998	2003
15-19	92.2	91.5	90.6	4.7	4.8	3.9	2.7	3.6	5.1	0.0	0.0	0.0
20-24	54.6	56.3	48.7	38.4	34.5	36.9	6.0	7.6	12.7	0.3	0.1	0.0
25-29	25.1	25.0	20.8	66.3	64.3	66.4	6.3	7.5	9.7	0.7	0.4	0.2
30-34	12.2	11.5	10.8	77.9	76.9	77.1	5.8	7.2	8.0	1.4	1.8	0.8
35-39	6.7	7.5	6.9	81.6	79.7	80.0	5.9	7.3	7.2	2.7	2.2	2.1
40+	5.7	7.0	5.0	79.4	77.9	78.9	5.5	5.4	6.7	6.1	5.7	4.8
Total	36.7	36.4	32.2	54.4	53.4	55.6	5.2	6.2	8.0	1.8	1.7	1.5

Age	Marital Status						Number of women
	Divorced			Not living together			Number of women
	1993	1998	2003	1993	1998	2003*	1993	1998	2003
15-19	0.0	0.0	0.3	0.3	0.1		3,158	2,924	2,648
20-24	0.0	0.0	1.8	0.8	1.5		2,649	2,299	2,209
25-29	0.1	0.1	2.8	1.6	2.7		2,430	2,209	2,034
30-34	0.3	0.0	3.2	2.5	2.6		2,196	2,058	1,954
35-39	0.2	0.0	3.7	2.9	3.3		1,889	1,842	1,873
40+	0.6	0.1	4.5	2.5	3.9		2,708	2,650	2,915
Total	0.2	0.0	2.7	1.6	2.3		15,029	13,983	13,633

Note: In 2003, those not living together were included either in never married, married, widowed or divorced. Source: National Demographic and Health Survey: 1993, 1998 and 2003

Table 3. Median Age at First Marriage

Age	Median Age at First Marriage			% Never Married
Age	1993	1998	2003	1993	1998	2003
15-19	a	a	a	92.2	91.5	90.6
20-24	a	a	a	54.6	56.3	48.7
25-29	22.0	22.7	22.2	25.1	25.0	20.8
30-34	21.7	22.2	22.3	12.2	11.5	10.8
35-39	21.4	21.8	22.0	6.7	7.5	6.9
40-44	21.5	21.6	21.6	5.3	7.4	5.5
45-49	21.6	21.8	21.9	6.3	6.6	4.5

Source: National Demographic and Health Survey: 1993, 1998 and 2003

Table 4. Median Age at First Marriage by Background Characteristics

Background characteristic	Women age 25-49
Background characteristic	1993	1998	2003
Residence
Urban	22.3	23.0	22.9
Rural	20.7	21.0	20.9
Region
NCR	24.0	24.0	23.8
CAR	22.3	20.7	21.5
I	22.2	21.9	22.1
II	20.4	20.3	20.9
III	21.5	22.1	22.1
IV	21.4	22.1
IVA			22.7
IVB			21.0
V	20.8	21.5	21.4
VI	22.3	22.7	21.8
VII	21.7	22.6	21.9
VIII	20.9	19.9	20.8
IX	20.4	21.0	20.9
X	20.6	21.2	22.0
XI	20.9	21.8	21.4
XII	20.4	21.4	21.0
Caraga		21.0	21.1
ARMM		20.0	19.9
Education
No education	18.9	18.7	18.2
Elementary	19.6	19.8	19.6
High School	21.1	21.5	21.2
College or higher	a	a	a
Wealth index quintile
Lowest			19.7
Second			20.6
Middle			21.5
Fourth			22.8
Highest			24.6
Total	21.4	22.1	22.0

a - omitted because less than 50 percent of women married for the first time
before reaching age 25
Source: National Demographic and Health Survey: 1993, 1998 and 2003

Table 5. Marriages by Nationality of Bride and Groom: Philippines, 2003

Nationality of Groom	Nationality of Bride
Nationality of Groom	Total	Filipino	Chinese	Ame- rican	Spanish	Japanese	Australian	Iranian	German	Others	Not Stated
Total	593,553	588,686	2,329	621	393	215	210	83	45	802	169
Filipino	578,787	575,189	1,999	514	129	155	111	59	16	543	72
Chinese	814	393	292	4	94	4	7	2	2	6	10
American	3,114	3,002	6	47	14	6	3	5	1	25	5
Spanish	306	124	5	16	109	5	11	6	8	3	19
Japanese	5,580	5,468	6	5	19	30	23	4	5	14	6
Australian	615	569	-	6	2	1	16	6	1	3	11
Iranian	96	35	2	4	12	6	35	1	-	-	1
German	227	205	3	5	1	-	-	-	5	8	-
Others	3,751	3,484	13	20	13	8	4	-	7	199	3
Not Stated	263	217	3	-	-	-	-	-	-	1	42

Source: Civil Registration System, National Statistics Office

Table 6. Attitudes (in percent) of Youth, 15-24 on sex-related issues by region

Region	Agree to live in with no plan to marry	Approve of woman having PMS	Approve of man having PMS	Would support bill to legalize divorce in RP
Philippines	17.9	23.7	37.2	40.0
NCR	20.8	29.5	42.7	43.2
1	23.6	20.4	32.5	39.0
2	14.7	17.3	33.0	30.5
3	14.7	19.2	37.9	45.4
4	19.6	24.7	40.1	41.6
5	13.5	20.9	31.4	29.9
6	22.9	23.5	38.0	37.1
7	12.8	23.7	35.0	39.4
8	30.2	29.6	42.4	44.5
9	13.2	20.4	32.5	39.0
10	13.7	20.2	35.1	35.0
11	16.1	20.4	33.0	36.5
12	18.7	21.0	31.4	30.9
CAR	21.5	24.3	36.9	35.6
Caraga	9.5	17.7	26.9	33.7
ARMM	0.3	6.9	17.7	93.3

Source: 2002 Young Adult Fertility and Sexuality Study

Table 7. Youth Engaged in PMS in percent, 2002

Region	Male	Female	Both
Philippines	31.2	15.9	23.2
NCR	41.8	21.3	30.6
1	29.4	14.1	22
2	18.4	10.2	14
3	29	15.9	21.4
4	31.3	15	22.4
5	31	17.5	24.1
6	26.1	10.5	18.3
7	27.3	18.3	22.8
8	36.2	22.9	29.6
9	26.3	13.1	19.7
10	30.5	14.6	21.7
11	30.7	14.8	22.8
12	28.8	11.1	21.3
CAR	32.4	13.9	22.3
Caraga	23.8	11.4	17.1
ARMM	19.2	3	10.2

Source: 2002 Young Adult and Fertility and Sexuality Study

Table 8. Percent distribution of youth ages 20-24 by first union status by sex:
Philippines, 1994 and 2002

Union status	1994			2002
Union status	Both sexes	Male	Female	Both sexes	Male	Female
Never been in union	66.5	78.3	55.6	66.6	81.0	54.7
Ever been in union	33.5	21.7	44.4	33.4	19.0	45.3
Marry only	13.6	7.7	19.1	10.1	5.2	14.2
Live-in only	7.8	6.3	9.1	11.5	8.3	14.1
Live-in then marry	12.1	7.7	16.2	11.8	5.5	17.0
Total	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0
N	4,514	2,178	2,336	6,365	2,883	3,479
Ever married	25.7	15.4	35.3	21.9	10.7	31.2
Ever live-in	19.9	14.0	25.3	23.3	13.8	31.1

Source: Young Adult Fertility and Sexuality Study, 1994 and 2002

Source of basic data: Labor Force Survey, NSO.

Source of basic data: NSO Civil Registration System.

Background characteristic