Factors associated with marriage delay among women in Yangon Region : an analysis of 2014 Myanmar population and housing census

Abstract

This study aimed to explore factors associated with women delay marriage in Yangon region, where the proportion of unmarried women is the highest (17.90%). The study paid special attention to the relationship between women's social and economic status, migration, and staying single using secondary data from 2014 census in Myanmar. The analytical sample was 20,473 never-married and ever-married women aged 50-54 in Yangon Region. Bivariate analysis was used to present the relationship between women's marital status and other characteristics, multivariate analysis of logistic regression used to determine the association between each variable and the other variables. Results from both bivariate and multivariate analysis virtually indicated similar results that demographic, social, economic, and migration were significantly associated with women delaying marriage. The study showed that in Yangon Region, marriage delay among women aged 50-54 was associated with urbanization, higher socio-economic status, and with non-migrant status. Women remaining single at age 50-54 were likely to be those who live in urban residence, have obtained high education, have a professional job, live in better-quality housing, own their residence, and were not migrants. The migration experiences associated with marriage implied that women moved to follow their family or to get married. Further study should be done to draw attention to the implications, more information on life styles and opinions about marriage among single women for the policy makers to help mitigate the drawbacks highlighted in this study