Factors Affecting on Early Marriage of Women in Rural Areas, Bangladesh

Abstract

Bangladesh is one of the most densely populated countries in the world where population growth rate is 1.6 percent (Wikipedia). Early marriage is one of the important factors of population growth. This paper uses data from Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey 2011 to examine different socio-economic and demographic factors that are correlated to age at first marriage of women in the rural area. Bivariate and multivariate logistic regression analyzes have been used to estimate the factors effect on age at first marriage. The results show that respondent’s education, husband’s education, husband’s occupation, religion, region and socio-economic status have a significant effect on age at first marriage of women in the rural area by both Cross-tabulation and Logistic regression analyzes. Moreover, access to mass media has found a significant association with age at first marriage in the rural area by Cross-tabulation analysis.