To the west of the Hajnal line, shown in red, the Western European marriage pattern arose. The blue lines mark areas of Western Europe that did not conform to Western Europe's marriage pattern
The Western European marriage pattern is a family and demographic pattern that is marked by comparatively late marriage (in the middle twenties), especially for women, with a generally small age difference between the spouses, a significant proportion of women who remain unmarried, and the establishment of a neolocal household after the couple has married.
In 1965, John Hajnal posited that Europe could be divided into two areas characterized by a different patterns of nuptiality. To the west of the line, which extends approximately between Saint Petersburg, Russia, and Trieste, Italy, marriage rates and thus fertility were comparatively low and a significant minority of women married late or remained single and most families were nuclear; to the east of the line and in the Mediterranean and particular regions of Northwestern Europe, early marriage and extended family homes were the norm and high fertility was countered by high mortality.[1][2]
In the 20th century, Hajnal's observations were assumed as valid by a wide variety of sociologists. However, since the early 21st century, his theory has been routinely criticized and rejected by scholars. Hajnal and other researchers did not have access to, or underplayed[3] nuptiality research from behind the Iron Curtain which contradict their observations on central and eastern Europeans.[4][5] Though some sociologists have called to revise or reject the concept of a "Hajnal line," other scientists continue to cite Hajnal's research on the influence of western European marriage patterns.[6][7][8]
^Hajnal, John (1965): European marriage pattern in historical perspective en D.V. Glass and D.E.C. Eversley, (eds.) Population in History, Arnold, Londres.
^Kertzer, David I and Marzio Barbagli. 2001. The history of the European family. New Haven: Yale University Press. p xiv
^Szołtysek 2012"This tendency to underplay variations in family living arrangements in the European East was criticized even among Western scholars. As early as in 1990s, D. Kertzer argued that “eastern Europe, like western Europe, displayed a diversity of household systems in preindustrial times” which were linked to “regional differences in political economic arrangements and ecological conditions.”153"
^Szołtysek, Mikołaj (2012). "Spatial construction of European family and household systems: a promising path or a blind alley? An Eastern European perspective". Continuity and Change. 27 (1): 11–52. doi:10.1017/S0268416012000057. ISSN 0268-4160. S2CID 55649305. "This essay represents an attempt at a re-examination of the Western scientific evidence for the existence of the divergent ‘Eastern European family pattern’. This evidence is challenged by almost entirely unknown contributions of Eastern European scholars, revealing the stark incompatibility of the two discourses."
^Angeli, Aurora (2019). "Book Review: Rethinking East-central Europe: Family Systems and Coresidence in the Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth". Genus. 75. doi:10.1186/s41118-018-0048-4.
^Piazzo 2017. sfn error: no target: CITEREFPiazzo_2017 (help)
^Dennison, Tracy; Ogilvie, Sheilagh (2014). "Does the European Marriage Pattern Explain Economic Growth?". Cambridge University Press. 74 (3): 651–693. doi:10.1017/S0022050714000564. hdl:10419/74502. S2CID 8112005.
^Henrich, Joseph (2020). The WEIRDest People in the World. Farrar, Strauss, and Giroux.
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