A Geography of Marriage in the United States (1970–2010)

In this paper, I trace the geography of marriage in the United States in a geographical scale of county level. I present the changes of marriage rates in 3316 counties from 1970 to 2010 at four points of time. Using data from the National Historical Geographic Information System (NHGIS) provides marital status of men and women from 14 years old to over 65. Despite the fact that proportion of currents married individuals has reduced in the past four decades ago, the results show the geographic analysis of marriage has unveiled a substantial amount of spatial heterogeneity across counties. This paradox between country and county level reminds us the importance of contextual level factors. The regional fluctuations of marriage point to the presence of the eco-demographic effects in the geo-historical patterns of marriage in the United States.