The Variability of Age at First Marriage in the United States

This study examines the variability of age at first marriage across birth cohorts, genders, education levels, and races. The argument for the deinstitutionalization of formal marriage suggests that formal marriage has become more individualized over the past few decades, and people have more autonomy in deciding the timing of their first marriage as the cultural conformity pertaining to marriage as an institution decline. This may contribute to a growing variability of age at first marriage in recent cohorts. However, as the process of deinstitutionalization differs across genders, education levels, and races, the changes in cultural conformity regarding formal marriage may also differ, leading to divergent changes in the variability of age at first marriage among these social groups. Using the 2008-23 American Community Survey (ACS) data (n=13,737,325) and OLS regression models, our results show a U-shaped trend over cohorts: the variability was least diverse among cohorts born between 1925 and 1949. In addition, we find an interaction effect of gender and race. Further, highly educated people tend to have less variability in marriage age than those with less education. This study contributes to our understanding of the heterogeneous changes in cultural conformity regarding the timing of first marriage and the deinstitutionalization of formal marriage in the United States.