Religious Upbringing and Partner Selection: An Analysis of Union Formation among Catholics and Muslims in France

Godefroy Djomo Lokanga , Université Paris Nanterre
Allan Jay, Université Paris 1 Panthéon Sorbonne
Manon Legras, Université de Picardie Jules Verne
Dorine Noumon, Université Paris 1 Panthéon Sorbonne
Aurélien Dasré, Université Paris Nanterre

Most Muslims and Catholics in France are partnered today with someone from the same religious background. Yet measures of religious homogamy overlook the diversity of past relationships and the role of religious upbringing. Using retrospective data from the Étude des parcours individuels et conjugaux (EPIC, Ined–Insee 2013–2014), we examine partner choice across two cohorts (1948–1963 and 1964–1978). This study combines multivariate and longitudinal methods to explore how early religious upbringing influences partner selection across the life course. Using logistic regression and sequence analysis, it reveals how socialization, education, and cohort shape gendered patterns and diverse trajectories of homogamous and heterogamous unions in France. The findings show strong generational and social contrasts between Catholics and Muslims, with interreligious unions rising more sharply among Muslims, especially the highly educated. Once sociodemographic and upbringing factors are controlled, these differences largely fade, indicating that partner diversity is driven more by social and educational resources than by religion itself. Moreover, a substantial share of Catholics and Muslims experienced at least one interreligious union, pointing to the rise of complex trajectories combining homogamous and heterogamous relationships over the life course. Among Catholics, younger women increasingly follow heterogamous or mixed trajectories, while predominantly homogamous pathways decline. This generational shift is strongest among middle-educated women, suggesting that secularization and changing family norms reduce parental influence in partner choice. By distinguishing three relational patterns (homogamous, heterogamous, and singlehood), the study highlights both persistent religious endogamy and new openings toward interreligious unions.

See extended abstract

 Presented in Session 50. How Beliefs and Attitudes Shape Life Courses