Georgians and other ethnic groups: understanding (in)tolerance (Part 3)

As the first blog post in this series highlighted, approval by Georgians for doing business with members of other ethnic groups is, overall, declining. When it comes to Georgian women marrying men of other ethnicities, Georgians are even less approving. These latter attitudes vary by settlement type, age, and level of education. As in the previous blog posts in this series, only the answers of ethnic Georgians are presented in this blog post.

Georgians living in the capital report the highest approval of Georgian women marrying men of other ethnicities. On average, there is a 14 percentage point difference between the population of the capital and rural settlements. The biggest gap is with Americans (19%): 54% of Georgians in Tbilisi approve of Georgian women marrying Americans, while only 35% of the rural population say the same. The gap is smallest with Russians: 55% in the capital and 45% in rural settlements approve of Georgian women marrying Russians.

Note: Only shares of those answering “Approve” are presented on the charts in this blog post. 

Differences between the answers of people of different ages are also noteworthy, though the gaps are smaller. Overall, younger people show greater approval of Georgian women marrying foreigners. The biggest gap is observed in respect to marrying Americans (14%): while 50% of young people 18 to 35 approve of Georgian women marrying Americans, only 36% of older people (56+) say the same.

Differences by education level are also informative. The higher a person’s level of education, the more s/he tends to approve of Georgian women marrying men of other ethnicities. On average, there is a ten percentage point gap between people with secondary or lower education and those with tertiary education. As with settlement types and age groups, the largest gap is observed in relation to Americans. Only 37% of people with secondary or lower education approve of Georgian women marrying Americans, while 51% of people with tertiary education report the same.

Approval by Georgians of Georgian women marrying men of other ethnicities varies by settlement type, education, and, to a lesser extent, by age. Interestingly, the gaps between the groups are consistently greatest when it comes to (dis)approval of Georgian women marrying Americans.

To take a deeper look at the data used in this blog post, try out our online data analysis tool.