In recent decades, Italy has rapidly experienced cultural and societal transformations that have led to major changes in family formation. The most relevant of these are nuptiality decline, changes in the age at first marriage, rise of non-marital cohabitation and of “living apart together’” partnerships, delayed entry into first union, higher levels of marital disruption and remarriages. The institution of marriage is clearly under pressure: notwithstanding, marriage cannot be considered in Italy as an outdated one since 8 women and 7 men aged 45 out of 10 are or have been married. Even if marriage is no longer considered as the only appropriate arrangement for childbearing, in 2016 nearly 70% of all births occurred within marriage.
The aim of the presentation is to examine the transformation of nuptiality patterns in Italy from the 1950s to present by comparing period and cohort indicators. Special attention will be given to both temporal and spatial variation of nuptiality indicators. Despite common sub regional trends, Italy is characterized by considerable spatial diversity in nuptiality indicators’ levels.