Migration during early married life

A one per cent sample drawn from the 1971 Census (the OPCS Longitudinal Study) was used to study the migration patterns of women in the early years of first marriage. Information from the retrospective fertility and migration history contained in the 1971 Census record was analyzed and the results show migration at, or soon after, marriage to be almost universal. Marriage migrants constituted a quarter of all one-year within-county movers and a fifth of inter-regional movers among women aged 16–29. In the early years of marriage differentials in migration rates according to duration of marriage were greater than differentials associated with age or with husband's change of occupation. The pattern of migration around marriage varied according to a number of socio-economic factors. The timing of the first and subsequent births early in marriage was found to have little effect on migration rates once allowance for duration of marriage was made in the analysis. The results of the study demonstrate the value of the OPCS Longitudinal Study as a source of migration data.