Demographic and Socio-economic Determinants of Age at First Marriage of Women in Bangladesh: An Analysis

Abstract

Bangladesh is one of the Lower Middle Income Countries (LMIC) where about half of the total population is women who are getting involved in all spheres of life as educational, professional, political arena and contributing to the economy. But lower age at first marriage of women is a serious impediment to this contribution. This paper dissects various demographic and socio-economic factors that affect the age at first marriage of women in Bangladesh. The population of the study is comprised of individual level married women of different areas in Bangladesh. A sample of 350 married women has been constructed through purposive sampling technique and surveyed through structured questionnaire. Research data have been analyzed by using descriptive and inferential statistics as one-way ANOVA, zero order correlation. In the study, mean age at first marriage of women is 16.25 years in rural and 18.46 years in urban and the overall mean is 17.01 years. The findings of this study also reveal that mean age at first marriage of women is changing with the change and promotion of women’s education, occupation, place of residence, husband’s education, husband’s occupation, consent to marry, parents’ education, biological maturity, economic condition, age and religion. In zero order correlation, it is found that most of the factors selected have significant impacts on age at first marriage of women. The results of analyses have also identified a few crucial issues that may be taken into consideration for further studies and policy formulation by the concerned ones.