International Variations in The Relative Ages of Brides and Grooms

Summary

Data showing the relative ages of husbands and wives at marriage in one post-war year are available for many countries, and show that the age distribution of wives for men of a given age varies appreciably from country to country. So also does the age distribution of husbands for a given age of bride. The range of the average ages of marriage partners, from country to country within Europe, is about 2 years for either sex.

The first part of the paper investigates how far these variations are associated with the corresponding international differences in the supply of men and women available for marriage. There is some correlation—mostly positive at the younger and older marriage ages and negative at the central marriage ages. The results show an affinity with those of a similar study based on time trends in one country alone: England and Wales.

In so far as age distributions at marriage are not directly associated with the supply of people available as partners, international variations may be regarded as the expression of differences in social custom, in economic history or in taste. In the second part of the paper such differences are exhibited and discussed. For a given age of one spouse, partners in most countries are older than in Britain but younger wives are found in some Communist countries and also in the Commonwealth.

In the final section, the development of the marriage age experience in two countries—France, and England and Wales—is compared over the period 1911–61, and some interesting differences are revealed, especially in relation to the effects of world wars, of economic depressions and the history of contraceptives. In 1911, appreciably older husbands and younger wives were found in France than in Britain, but today the differences between the two countries are much smaller.