Majors and Marriage: Does Field of Study Influence the Timing of First Marriage?

Camille Ryan, U.S. Census Bureau
Jessica W. Davis, U. S. Census Bureau

The current literature states that women with a college education are more likely to marry than women with less education. In their study of generational cohorts (1950-1954, 1955-1959 and 1960-1964), Goldstein and Kenney (2001) forecasted that 94 percent of the college graduates from the 1960-1964 cohort would marry, compared with about 89 percent of those without a college diploma. Knowing that a post secondary education leads to near universality of marriage, our interest is in the possible relationship between field of study of bachelor's degree and timing of marriage. To examine this, we would use the 2001 Survey of Income and Program Participation, merging the Wave 2 Education and Work Training History topical module with the Wave 2 Marital History module. The SIPP collects data specific to field of study, allowing us the opportunity to investigate at the discipline level if there is a relationship to marriage.