Marriage and Nonmarital Fertility: A Comparison of Ireland and Sweden

Theorists and policymakers have speculated that late marriage may carry the risk of increased levels of illegitimate fertility. A detailed analysis of marriage behavior and nonmarital fertility in Ireland and Sweden in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries indicates that purely demographic changes in nuptiality do not uniformly affect illegitimate fertility.

Ireland and Sweden were both characterized by late marriage and increasingly high celibacy over the period in question; yet, the illegitimacy rate and ratio remained exceptionally low in Ireland, while both measures increased dramatically in Sweden. These divergent trends can be largely explained by factors in the respective social and cultural settings that affected unmarried women's motivation to reproduce.