The Influence of Religion on Marriage Ages in Albania around 1900

Abstract

At first an overview about marriage patterns in Albania around 1900 and the influence of religion on marriage patterns in Southeastern Europe is given. The Albanian census of 1918 used for this analysis is presented and the religious situation in Albanian in 1918 is explained. Research questions are defined and possible other factors influencing marriage patterns in Albania are discussed. The descriptive analysis reveals religious influences on marriage patterns, but cannot quantify the amount of different factors. This first analysis of the influence of religion on marriage ages in Albania using microdata in a logistic regression shows that a considerable influence of religion on marriage ages remain even after including a series of other variables. Generally other variables like the regions within Albania, literacy, Slavic ethnicity, and age had stronger influences on ages at marriage than religion. But religion in the form of Roman Catholicism was the main factor influencing the share of unmarried women around an age of 50 years.