Occupational homogamy in eight countries of the European Union, 1975-1989

Using data from the Eurobarometers, the association between the occupations of spouses is studied for eight EU countries at several points in time. Most of the association is due to a tendency towards occupational similarity between the spouses. The strength of this tendency differs somewhat between countries and decreases by about 16 per cent between 1975 and 1989, indicating that the social structure of the countries has become more open in this period. By comparing the changes in occupational homogamy of successive birth cohorts over time, we find that when the spouses belonging to a certain birth cohort grow older, their degree of occupational similarity decreases. This suggests that even within existing marriages spouses tend to become less alike between 1975 and 1989