This study examines the historical changes in Canadian womens nuptiality patterns namely the first marriage rate and the age at first marriage from 1921-25 to 1981-85. Five hypotheses are developed...: the modernization thesis which predicts that increasing individualism is responsible for variation in nuptiality trends over time; the hypothesis of negative effects of national war and the Great Depression; the hypothesis of sex ratio imbalances concerning distorted numerical marriage markets; the hypothesis regarding the relative size of the cohort of men which calls for large cohorts to experience relatively low rates of marriage because of poor economic prospects; and the gains-from-marriage hypothesis that since the early 1960s the social psychological and economic advantages to entering legal marriage have diminished. Multivariate analyses of the first marriage rate and singulate age at marriage lend considerable support for the above explanations. (EXCERPT)