Socio-cultural correlates of changes in the timing of marriage in Ghana: 1988-2014

Abstract

While conventional thinking with regards to population change has given pride of place to the three central demographic variables of fertility, mortality and migration; family formation and dissolution patterns have been equally important in determining population dynamics. For instance, the bulk of childbearing (fertility) takes place within the context of marriage, a process which in turn affects an important component of population change, the birth rate. In fact, the high levels of fertility in many sub-Saharan African populations have been attributed to the pattern of near universal and early marriage in these societies, while the low birth rate that characterizes the developed societies has been a function of the relatively lower levels and later marriage patterns in such societies (Bongaarts 1982; Coale and Treadway 1986; Rosero-Bixby 1996).