"Till death do us part". Analysis of the marital relationships in the 21st century

Despite of globalization and individualization processes throughout last decades, everyday individual life has radically changed. Particularly, traditional family system has been af-fected by these phenomena if we consider the increase in marital uncertainty and, hence, the de-legitimization of the old-fashioned conjugal bond. This is mostly due to the recent introduction of the divorce law through European Countries. For this reason, this descrip-tive study, supported by secondary statistical data, aims at analyzing both the marriage rate and the divorce rate from a longitudinal and comparative perspective. Furthermore, with the purpose to furnish an overview as more complete as possible, outside and inside marriage birth rates are taken into account.