You may have heard people caution against marrying too young. They often warn that many of these young marriages ultimately end up in divorce. Parents may tell their young adult children to wait longer, for example, before tying the knot.
But are there any statistics to back this up? Is it a real phenomenon that can be tracked, or is it just something that people have repeated so often that they now believe it?
Tracking the ideal marriage age
It is important to note that overall statistics cannot necessarily be applied to every individual marriage. For example, there are statistics showing that young marriages are more likely to end in divorce, but there are also plenty of people who get married at a relatively young age and stay married. Every marriage is unique.
What the statistics find, however, is that the ideal marriage age is typically 32. Divorce odds climb by roughly 11% for every year before that. As such, getting married at 18 is much more likely to lead to divorce, though it is not guaranteed.
However, waiting past the age of 32 means that the odds of divorce start to go back up again. They do not rise quite as quickly. Instead, they go up by roughly 5% per year. Getting married at 35 is slightly more likely to lead to divorce than getting married at 32.
Navigating a divorce
Do you believe that your marriage is headed for a divorce this year? If so, it is important to understand all of your legal rights and obligations when it comes to property division, child custody schedules and more.