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A Demographic Analysis of Registered Partnerships (legal same-sex unions): The Case of Norway

Author

Listed:
  • Turid Noack

    (Statistics Norway)

  • Ane Seierstad

    (Statistics Norway)

  • Harald Weedon-fekjær

    (University of Oslo)

Abstract

In 1993, Norway became the second country in the world to introduce registered partnerships. As with same-sex marriages, registered partnerships give the same rights and duties as marriages for opposite sex couples, with a few exceptions. The present article describes this ‘new’ demographic event based on Norwegian experiences. Compared to the number of new cases each year of opposite-sex marriages, registered partnerships amount to less than 1%. Gay partnerships are more common than lesbian partnerships, but the proportion of female partnerships has increased since the law came into force. In one out of five partnerships, one or both partners have been previously married to a person of the opposite sex. At the time they entered into the partnership, 24% of the women and 13 of the men had at least one child. When examining the registered partnerships entered into in Norway between 1993 and 2001 we estimated the probability of divorce to be 16% after six years. We also carried out a multivariate analysis of the divorce risk and found that the divorce risk for female partnerships is double that of the risk for male partnerships. Another high risk group is partnerships between a Norwegian and a person from a non-Nordic country.

Suggested Citation

  • Turid Noack & Ane Seierstad & Harald Weedon-fekjær, 2005. "A Demographic Analysis of Registered Partnerships (legal same-sex unions): The Case of Norway," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 21(1), pages 89-109, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:eurpop:v:21:y:2005:i:1:d:10.1007_s10680-005-3626-z
    DOI: 10.1007/s10680-005-3626-z
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Chih-lan Winnie Yang & Xavier St-Denis & Sean Waite & Nicole Denier, 2025. "Studying individuals in same-sex couples using longitudinal administrative data from Canadian tax records: Opportunities and challenges," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 52(2), pages 25-70.
    2. Zhiyong Lin & Wei-hsin Yu & Kuo-Hsien Su, 2019. "Comparing same- and different-sex relationship dynamics: Experiences of young adults in Taiwan," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 40(17), pages 431-462.
    3. Yang, Chih-lan Winnie & Denier, Nicole & St-Denis, Xavier & Waite, Sean, 2025. "Studying Individuals in Same-Sex Couples using Longitudinal Administrative Data from Canadian Tax Records: Opportunities and Challenges," SocArXiv j9skr_v1, Center for Open Science.
    4. Claudia Senik & Anne Solaz, 2024. "The price of youth. Natural versus social preferences for age-hypergamy," PSE Working Papers halshs-04840609, HAL.
    5. Kara Joyner & Wendy Manning & Ryan Bogle, 2017. "Gender and the Stability of Same-Sex and Different-Sex Relationships Among Young Adults," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 54(6), pages 2351-2374, December.
    6. Kenneth Aarskaug Wiik & Ane Seierstad & Turid Noack, 2012. "Divorce in norwegian same-sex marriages 1993-2011," Discussion Papers 723, Statistics Norway, Research Department.
    7. Chen, Shuai, 2019. "Marriage, minorities, and mass movements," Other publications TiSEM 9cb1b11d-12e6-46a8-adca-4, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.

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