The unique cultural and political history of Central Asia has produced intriguing ethnic variations in
union formation. We use data from a survey of 1535 young adults conducted in 2005 in northern
Kyrgyzstan to examine ethnic patterns of entry into marriage vs. cohabitation. To reflect the
historico-cultural and political realities of Kyrgyzstan, we subdivide ethnic Kyrgyz into two
categories based on the degree of linguistic Russification—more-Russified Kyrgyz and lessRussified
Kyrgyz—and compare them to each other and to respondents of European origin. The
results of the multinomial discrete-time logit models show significant differences among the three
groups. Thus Europeans were most likely to enter cohabitation whereas less Russified Kyrgyz
were least likely to do so, net of other factors. The three groups were lined up in the converse
order with respect to probability of entering marriage, but this ordering was present only among
women. In contrast, among men, more-Russified Kyrgyz were less likely to marry than both lessRussified
Kyrgyz and Europeans. We interpret these findings in light of long-term historico-cultural
and demographic distinctions as well as more recent politically-induced cleavages in Kyrgyzstan.