Do Those Who Marry Young Marry More Often?

In the past, couples married young all the time. Life expectancy was lower and it was often expected for a woman to marry at a young age and find a man to take care of them.

Nowadays, this is not the expectation. In the United States, the average age of a first marriage has risen to age 31. Depending on how you look at it, the average life expectancy in the nation is around 79 years old. So if a person follows these trends, they have roughly 48 years to be married.

However, if a person marries young – such as in their early 20s – they have potentially another decade to be married. They could have 60 years or more to be married. But does this mean that they marry more often?

Possibly. It helps to look at marriage trends over the years to see when people are getting married for the first time and if they are getting married beyond that. Decades ago, most people were married by age 25. Today, that is no longer the case.

The change from 1940 to 1990 is dramatic. Of adults born between 1940 and 1944, nearly 80% of women and 65% of men were married by age 25. Half a century later, in 1990, only 30% of women and 20% of men born between 1990 and 1994 were married by age 25.

People are living longer, and aging provides additional time for a person to get married or remarried as well as increased opportunities. Among women, those born between 1950 and 1954 were most likely to be married multiple times, at 32%. The second-highest was those born between 1955 and 1959, at 30.4%. Among men, the birth cohort with the highest number of multiple marriages was between 1940 and 1944, at 34.1%. Next was the 1945 to 1949 cohort, at 32%. As men got older, the probability of getting married a second time decreased, with the 1975-1979 birth cohort down to just under 13%.

An earlier marriage may mean more marriages. Let’s compare two people who are both 35 years old. Let’s say one married at 25 and the other married at the average age of 31. Both have had the same amount of time to get married once but cannot marry again until the first marriage ends. This means that the one who married at age 25 would have 10 years to end their first marriage and marry again, while the person who married at age 31 would have just four years. In fact, those who entered a first marriage by age 25 had a higher share of the population that married multiple times than those who got married for the first time at an older age.

Seek Legal Help

Marrying young does not always correlate into marrying more often. A person who marries at a young age does not necessarily have to get married multiple times, although they would have had enough time to do so.

Whether you have been married once, twice, or more, Fort Lauderdale divorce lawyer Edward J. Jennings, P.A. can assist you should your marriage end. We understand how complex things can be if you marry multiple times. To schedule a consultation, fill out the online form or call 954-764-4330.

Source:

census.gov/library/stories/2022/08/does-marrying-younger-mean-marrying-more-often.html