Definition: Total first-marriage rate

Category: Demography

The mean number of first marriages per woman (or man) in a given year. The total first-marriage rate is calculated by adding the first-marriage rates by age of women (or men) for the year in question, with the number of women (or men) at each age assumed to be the same. This rate does not separate out the different generations and is not the first-marriage rate of any specific generation; rather, it is the first-marriage rate of a hypothetical generation subjected at each age to the current marriage conditions. http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/ramon/statmanuals/files/KS-CC-03-005-EN.pdf