Demographic Trends and Educational Homogamy in Britain

This paper considers how the rise of remarriage and premarital cohabitation affect the trends and patterns of educational homogamy in Britain. Using repeated cross-sectional data taken from the General Household Surveys, which cover a thirty years period, I show that the strength of educational homogamy has declined for remarriages and for marriages that began as cohabiting unions. The decline for remarriages is sustained and substantial, such that remarriages are now less homogamous than first marriages. As for marriages which began as cohabiting unions, the decline is more ‘episodic’.