Long-term trends of remarriage in Lithuania

Abstract

The growing number of divorces increases the circle of people with previous marriages who re-enter the “marriage market” and create a family with a new partner. Thus, divorce allows individuals to decide whether they will create a new partnership or remain lonely. This article attempts to review the long-term trends of remarriages in Lithuania through different decades of the 20th century. The research is based on the review of legal marriage and divorce registration procedures in the beginning of the 20th century in Lithuania and other available demographic data. Analyzing the registration of legal civil marriages and procedures of divorces legalization it is possible to argue divorce became an integral part of the Soviet legacy that strongly influenced choices of a modern person. The legalization of the divorce helped the emergence of the remarriage demographic. In a long-term perspective, the number of remarriages has been increasing for both men and women, but men have more chances to remarry. Thus, it is obvious that gender and age are important factors determining the course of partnership history after divorce.