Is the marriage market unbalanced? The case of Mexico in 1980

Abstract

In a marriage market, as in any other kind of market, one of the important elements that determines the number of transactions (unions) that take place within that market, is the degree of balance that exists between the number of people supplying and the number of people demanding a particular product, which in this particular, complex case is a specific sociocultural product: the very individuals supplying and demanding the product, that is to say, the population of both sexes of marriageable age (single, between the ages of 12 and 50) exposed to the risk of marriage.

The objetive of this article is to present the results obtained when estimating how balanced, in numerical terms, the Mexican population of marriageable age was in 1980, in relation to its structure by age and sex, as well as the timing of its nuptiality. This estimate was made for both the state and national levels, using as a source of information the 1980 Census, correted for understatements and incorrect statements regarding age. In order to effect the estimate, two indicators were constructed: the radio of femininity by age group. Both of these are similar to the well- known index of masculinity, with the difference that, on the one hand, they relate men and women of marriageable age among whom there are certain age differences, according to the trends observed prior to 1980 in the Mexican population at the time of first marriage. On the other hand, they refer to the age or age group of the women, and not to that of the men.

On the basis of the findings, we can observe that it is possible to group 28 of Mexico's 32 states into 6 differents patterns with regard to the behavior of their ratio of femininity by individual age. Of these patterns, only one evidences a greater number of men than women among the simgle population over the age of 23, comprising the state of Hidalgo, Baja California Sur, Nayarit, Quintana Roo, Sinaloa, and Sonora. In the other five patterns, in the four states classified as "atypical," as well as at the national level, one can also note a marked imbalance, the difference being that said imbalance occurs in the form of deficits of men (or surpluses of women). These findings are corroborated by the ratios of femininity by age group. In general, it can be stated that the northern central region of the country is the one most affected by this phenomenon, since the states with greater imbalances in their respective marriage markets were Zacatecas, Guanajuato, Michoacán, Jalisco, and Aguascalientes.