Educational and socioeconomic homogamy, development level, and metropolisation across 149 European regions

Considered as a key index of social stratification, social homogamy (i.e. when partners within a couple share similarities) has been used by a stream of sociological research to test theories of modernisation and industrialisation, which hold that development goes hand in hand with a weakening of both class structure and the role of kinship in the personal lives of individuals. This article investigates this issue for the first time at the sub-national scale, using data on 149 regions in 26 European countries in 2014-2016 (“European Labour Force Survey”, Eurostat). I show that, whilst both educational and socioeconomic homogamy at first weaken when disposable income per inhabitant increases, they then stabilise once the European Union average income level has been reached. This relationship also holds between regions within a given country once higher levels of homogamy found in capitals and large metropolises are controlled for