Social Integration, Heterogeneity, and Divorce: The Case of the Swedish-speaking Population in Finland

Abstract

The study compared marital stability in Finland with focus on the two language groups. The divorce rate was remarkably lower among the Swedish-speaking minority than among the Finnish-speaking majority. An explanation for this may be differences in social integration. The assumption about the effect of social integration was also supported by covariates measuring urbanization and individual migration. A hypothesis that marital homogamy reduces the divorce rate found support only with respect to the language of the spouses but not with respect to level of education or age.