Marrying Older, But Sooner?

The age when Americans marry for the first time has risen to its highest point since the 1950s. Although true, there is more to the story. With life expectancy increasing, Americans today are actually marrying sooner in their lifetime, despite marrying at older ages.

Although it is common to use the 1950s as a comparison period, doing so exaggerates how much the age at marriage has really risen . Looking at trends since 1890 reveals a U-shaped curve in which the 1950s and 1960s stand out as the exception for marriage, not the norm (estimates for these two decades are not significantly different from one another).

By the end of the 19th century, men married for the first time at 26 years old, three years later than they did in the decade following the Second World War. By 1900 their age at marriage began falling, and it took a full century before returning to its 1890 level. For women, it took 90 years. The idea then that our great-great-grandparents married when they were little older than teenagers is little more than myth.

More from the US Census.

The Mystery of a Successful Marriage

What are the ingredients of a successful marriage? According to the National Center for Health Statistics report First Marriages in the United States, one of the most important ingredients--for women at least--is a college degree. Nothing guarantees a successful (i.e. long-lasting) marriage more than having a bachelor's degree. The percentage of women whose first marriage has lasted for 20 years ranges from a low of 39 percent among those who did not graduate from high school to a high of 78 percent among those with a bachelor's degree. The relationship between educational attainment and marital success is weaker for men, but still important, with the figure ranging from a low of 47 percent among men with no more than a high school diploma to a high of 65 percent among men with a bachelor's degree.

The answer to this mystery has nothing to do with love and everything to do with money. Increasingly, and almost exclusively, economic success accrues to men with a bachelor's degree. Women who graduate from college are far more likely than less-educated women to meet and marry a man with a college degree. Money--and men's ability to earn it--is the most important ingredient of a successful marriage.