Are there databases of the ages of partners at the time of marriage?

March 9, 2023 8:44 AM

Was discussing this article with friends this morning (WV defeats child marriage ban bill) and we were wondering what the age gap was in US-based marriages where at least one partner was younger than 18, and if that gap changed at the both-partners-at-least-18-years-old mark. Is there a database of US marriage statistics, with ages of partners, searchable by year and state? If not a nationwide option, do those databases exist specifically for the states that do allow marriage before the age of 18?
posted by Silvery Fish to Society & Culture (4 answers total)

Best answer: This commentary article in the Journal of Adolescent Health says, "The present study was the first to use various estimation methods to fill the data gaps. We found that nearly 300,000 children married in the United States (U.S.) between 2000 and 2018.... No central repository in the U.S. collects marriage-age data from all 50 states."
posted by bluedaisy at 9:59 AM on March 9, 2023 [2 favorites]

(But then they share a lot of data that starts to get at your question.)
posted by bluedaisy at 10:00 AM on March 9, 2023 [1 favorite]

There's census microdata, for example the Public Use Microdata Sample, although that won't be easily searchable. I think that also only tells you the ages of people who are currently married, so people who were married before 18 but are now over 18 wouldn't be visible there. It sounds like that's what the author of the JAH article bluedaisy linked to did for the states where they couldn't get the marriage certificates.
posted by madcaptenor at 11:45 AM on March 9, 2023 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Thank you, bluedaisy. Mothergods, those numbers are terrifying.
posted by Silvery Fish at 11:49 AM on March 9, 2023