Household structure Household structure and marriage patterns
Population structure and change
14
Table 3.4 Population, by sex, marital status, and by age
Age Sex, marital status
Male Female
Both Sexes Married
Divorced, separated
Widowed Never
married Total
Married Divorced,
separated Widowed
Never married
Total Married
Divorced, separated
Widowed Never
married Total
In thousands
0-14 2
6,222 6,224
4 5,890
5,895 6
1 12,112
12,119 15-24
342 2
2,078 2,423
891 1
7 1,325
2,224 1,233
1 10
3,403 4,647
25-39 1,725
2 7
236 1,970
2,011 4
48 90
2,154 3,736
6 55
326 4,123
40-64 1,667
1 49
11 1,729
1,319 7
318 7
1,651 2,986
8 368
18 3,380
65+ 363
76 2
441 91
3 152
2 248
454 4
227 5
689
Total 4,098
4 135
8,549 12,786
4,317 16
526 7,314
12,172 8,415
20 660
15,863 24,958
In percentages
0-14 100
100 100
100 100
100 15-24
14 86
100 40
60 100
27 73
100 25-39
88 12
100 93
2 4
100 91
1 8
100 40-64
96 3
1 100
80 19
100 88
11 1
100 65+
82 17
1 100
37 1
61 1
100 66
1 33
1 100
Total 32
1 67
100 35
4 60
100 34
3 64
100
While divorce and separation are practically invisible in the marital status distribution, the incidence of widowhood increases with age, especially for women. Whereas around 3 and 17 percent of men aged, respectively, 40-64 and
over-65 are widowers, the corresponding figures for women are 19 and no less than 61 percent. In absolute numbers, Afghanistan has around 135 thousand widowers, but considerably more than half a million widows. The two major
causes of this large number of widows are high male mortality in the last three decades of conflict in Afghanistan and large age differences between spouses. Irrespective of the cause, widowed women can be classified as being in a
vulnerable position.
The marital sex differentiation is clearly visible from Figure 3.3: women tend to get married earlier than men and become widowed earlier and in significantly larger shares.
Figure 3.3 Population, by age, and by marital status, for a males and b females in percentage a.Male b.Female
Early age at marriage for women – and early widowhood – is closely related to the practice of polygamy, as a polygamous marriage market creates an unequal demand for male and female spouses. The NRVA data indicate that around 6 percent
of married women some 256 thousand are in union with a husband who has more than one wife. The incidence of polygamous marriages is higher over 10 percent among Kuchis and lower around 4 percent in the urban population.
The NRVA data also allows the observation of significant social change in marriage patterns. Whereas on average in the older age group 60-69 husbands are more than eight years older than their wives, this age difference consistently
declines to five years in the age group 15-24. Figure 3.4 shows that the share of couples with relatively small spousal age differences less than four years has dramatically increased for each younger age group of women from 16 percent
among women age 70 and over to 54 percent of those under 20. At the same time, the shares of couples with large 10-19 years and very large 20 years or more age differences has similarly declined from 47 percent in the oldest age
group to 12 percent in the youngest. This development toward a more balanced age pattern between spouses is likely to contribute to women’s empowerment within marriage and the family see also Section 10.2.1.
With respect to the female age at first marriage, a noticeable decline of very early marriages can be observed. Whereas the 30-34 age cohort reported 11 percent of marriages contracted before reaching age 15, this has steadily declined to
around three percent for the 15-19 age group. The percentage of women married before age 18 and 20 declined from, respectively 45 and 66 percent to 39 and 60 percent between the 30-34 and 20-24 age cohorts.
As can be observed in Figure 3.4, the cohort-related pattern of increasing spousal age difference by age seem to be curbed in the age group of over-70. At the same time the share of women with younger husbands is significantly larger
in this group. This phenomenon can be explained by the excess mortality of husbands who are much older, but probably also by the incidence of levirate marriage, a practice especially prevalent in the Pashtun population, whereby a widow is
required to marry a – possibly younger – relative of her late husband.
Figure 3.4 Spousal age difference, by current age of wife percentage distribution