The Uncertain Relation between Early Marriage and Marital Stability: A Quest for Relevant Data.

This paper begins with some conclusions about age at marriage that are consistent with the available data in the United States. A second section considers evidence from American sources that bear on these propositions. Where the generalizations outrun the evidential support, this fact will be noted. In the colonial and early national periods of the U.S. people married quite early. During the nineteenth century the age of marriage rose. From 1890 to 1960 the median age at first marriage has declined about two years for women and three for men. There is a negative correlation between age at marriage and marital stability, i.e., the younger the age at marriage, the less stable the average marriage. There is negative correlation between age at marriage and socio-economic status, i.e., median age at first marriage is lower for the lower socio-economic strata than for the higher. Among those who marry young the level of education completed is relatively low and the proportion of women already pregnant is high.