Interethnic differences in divorce rates in the North Caucasus

Abstract

The North Caucasus being one of the most multi-ethnic regions in Russia, it is of great interest to demographers in the study of social modernization, which began later here than elsewhere in Russia. Social modernization in the North Caucasus took place in a heterogeneous way, due to the non-simultaneous migrations of peoples from the mountains to the plains and from rural areas to cities. Most works on the subject, however, are limited to marriage and fertility rates and ignore the topic of divorce. This article explores interethnic differences in divorce rates among the 11 most numerous indigenous peoples of the North Caucasus (the republics of Dagestan, North Ossetia-Alania, Kabardino-Balkaria, and Karachay-Cherkessia) in the second half of the 20^th century and at the beginning of the 21st century. The main sources of data are the Russian Population Microcensus of 1994, as well as the All-Russian Population Census of 2010. The calculations are the following:
1) the cumulative divorce rate for real generations born in 1939-1948, 1949-1958, 1959-1968; 2) the proportion of divorced men and women at the time of the 2010 Census; and 3) the average expected duration of divorce.
Over the time period under study, interethnic differences in divorce rates shrink – the largest increase in divorce rates is demonstrated by ethnic groups with smaller initial values, but there is still no convergence as of 2010.