At what age did people get married in the 1800?
Between 1800 and 1900, women generally married for the first time between the ages of 20 and 22.
In 1830, the age of consent for marriage was raised to 18 years old for males and 16 years old for females (though 18 years old was preferred for females). The average age of marriage for females was around 19 years old.
We continue to observe these trends in the twenty-first century. The median age at first marriage for women was 28 years in 2015-2019, up from 26.3 in 2006-2010. The median age at first marriage for men was 29.9 years in 2015-2019, up from 28.1 in 2006-2010.
| Census Year | Mean Age at Marriage | Percent Married 25–29 |
|---|---|---|
| Male | Female | |
| 1850d | 26.5 | 79.3 |
| 1860d | 26.6 | 79.4 |
| 1870d | 25.9 | 76.7 |
Marriage was, for many couples, a working partnership, and families were the basis of many businesses. Marriage was seen to encourage social stability and moral behaviour, and allowed secure transfer of property within a family. It had a strong religious meaning, a joining of two people by God for life.
| State | First cousin marriage allowed | Sexual relations or cohabitation allowed |
|---|---|---|
| Alaska | No | Yes |
| Arizona | Only if both parties are 65 or older, or one is infertile | No |
| Arkansas | No | Yes |
| California | Yes | Yes |
In Tanzania, Muslim and Hindu girls can marry at 12 as long as the marriage is not consummated until the girl reaches the age of 15.
Nujood Ali was just an eight-year-old child when her father arranged for her get married. She was one of 16 children.
The first actual laws against first-cousin marriage appeared during the Civil War era, with Kansas banning the practice in 1858, followed by Nevada, North Dakota, South Dakota, Washington, New Hampshire, Ohio and Wyoming in the 1860s.
New parents tend to be older in general. The average age of first-time mothers is 26, up from 21 in 1972, and for fathers it's 31, up from 27.
What was the average age of marriage in 1950?
In America, men and women are waiting longer than ever to get married for the first time. In the 1950s, women married at age 20 and men at 23. The median age at first marriage has been rising rapidly ever since. We're now at an all-time high of 27.1 for women and 29.1 for men.
A new study suggests that people should get married between the ages of 28 and 32 if they don't want to get divorced, at least in the first five years.
One common belief about the Renaissance is that children, especially girls, married young. In some noble houses marriages were indeed contracted at a young age, for reasons of property and family alliance, but in fact the average age of marriage was quite old--in the middle twenties.
In the late 16th century, the legal age for marriage in Stratford was only 14 years for men and 12 years for women. Usually, men would be married between the ages of 20 and 30 years old. Alternatively, women were married at an average of 24 years old, while the preferred ages were either 17 or 21.
Colonial Woman
Both men and women had great social pressure on them to marry. Young girls were often married by the age of 13 or 14. Women who were not married by the age of 25 were socially humiliated.
Until the 1857 Matrimonial Causes Act, it was essentially impossible to obtain a divorce, no matter how bad the marriage or how cruel one's husband. A couple could only be divorced by the passage of a private act through Parliament–remedy available only to the very wealthy.
No marriage of a person under the age of 21 was valid without the consent of parents or guardians. Clergymen who disobeyed the law were liable for 14 years transportation. Although Jews and Quakers were exempted from the 1753 Act, it required religious non-conformists and Catholics to be married in Anglican churches.
In the 1800s, women usually stayed at home. They cleaned the house and cooked and sewed. They didn't often go out to work and many girls didn't go to school. Women from very poor families worked as servants.
Marriage in Early America
In fact, the average age of first marriage for all of the colonies studied was 19.8 before 1700, 21.2 during the early 18th century, and 22.7 during the late 18th century.
One common belief about the Renaissance is that children, especially girls, married young. In some noble houses marriages were indeed contracted at a young age, for reasons of property and family alliance, but in fact the average age of marriage was quite old--in the middle twenties.
What was the legal age of marriage in 1600?
In the late 16th century, the legal age for marriage in Stratford was only 14 years for men and 12 years for women. Usually, men would be married between the ages of 20 and 30 years old. Alternatively, women were married at an average of 24 years old, while the preferred ages were either 17 or 21.
Nujood Ali was just an eight-year-old child when her father arranged for her get married. She was one of 16 children.
