Comparison of marital transition rates for Brazil and United States of America

In addition to the demographic components: fertility, mortality and migration, the formation or the dissolution of households are influenced by the marital/union transition and consequently it influences the household composition. Based on the population censuses of 1991 and 2000, we calculated the occurrence/exposure (o/e) rates of marriage/union formation and dissolution for an important city of Brazil. These rates were compared with the respective rates estimated by Zeng, Yang, Wang, and Morgan for the United States of American at the same period. The age-specific rates of Brazil are similar to the rates of United States of American but the American people marry earlier than the Brazilian people. In Brazil, the marital transition rate from the status never-married to the status married has the highest value for the age of 30 while in the United States the highest values refer to the age of 24 for men and the age 22 for women. In Brazil the marital transition rate from the status widowed to the status married has the highest value for the age of 20 while in the United States the highest values refer to the age of 27 for men and the age 22 for women.