Religious and educational assortative marriage patterns in the Netherlands, 1940-1985

Religious assortative marriage patterns are compared with educational assor tative marriage patterns for the period from 1940 to 1985. The association between spouses' religions is a good deal stronger than between their educa tions throughout this period. The association between spouses' religions di d become weaker during the 1960s but stabilised after 1970, partially becau se of high homogamy rates among a growing group of non-Christian religious groups. Educational assortative marriage patterns showed no clear upward or downward trend, although homogamy increased over time for the highest educ ational category and decreased for the lowest.