The History of Female Age at First Marriage, and The Real Deal on U.S. Divorce Rates

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Contrary to popular belief, marriage of young teen girls has never been the norm among the vast majority of Western cultures in history.

For instance, in Medieval Europe, there is a growing body of evidence that the average age of the first marriage of a woman was between 18-22 in most areas, with urban girls averaging closer to their mid-20s.

More recently, from the 18th through the 19th centuries in England, France, and Germany, the average age for a woman to get married was about 25 years old.

Across the pond in U.S. around that time, it was closer to 21-22. After the Civil War in America, it switched to about 22-24 years old.  Surprisingly, the lowest average age for first marriage since the early 1700s in United States comes from the baby boomer generation of the 20th century, who averaged 20.5 years old for women. Today, the average age in America for first marriage is 26.1 years old for women and 28.2 years old for men.

How likely is divorce today?

While you may have heard that there is a 50% chance of any U.S. marriage ending in divorce, this isn’t quite accurate, or at least doesn’t tell the whole story. This data only looks at the raw figures of marriages each year vs. the number of divorces, not taking into account repeat divorcees, which skew the totals in any given year considerably.

In fact, 67% of second marriages and 73% of third marriages end in divorce.  The average divorce rate for first marriages is only about 41% in the United States, and these divorce rate figures have been declining significantly in the last few decades, with no signs of stopping.

Marriages where both partners have a college degree only end in divorce about 25% of the time, even including repeat divorcees.

Source: Today I Found Out, http://www.todayifoundout.com/

Laura Lee Carter, MA Counseling Psychology, the writer behind the popular online magazine Midlife Crisis Queen,has been helping others turn midlife difficulties into opportunities for personal change since 2007. Besides working as a psychotherapist, Laura Lee has authored a number of books and e-books on midlife transformation.  Don’t miss her new book: Find Your Reason to Be Here: The Search for Meaning in Midlife. Follow her on Twitter: @midlifequeen.