The age at which people get married has progressively been moving back. Although there are still people who get married at 18, it’s far less common than it used to be. The current average age of marriage is 32 years old.
Does the age at which you get married have any sort of connection to your odds of getting divorced? Are you better off getting married early, late, or somewhere in the middle?
Waiting until 32 years of age is ideal
What some researchers have found is that waiting to get married can decrease your divorce odds. This is why they don’t recommend getting married at 18 or 19. You’re better off waiting for at least a few more years. Your odds of divorce tend to drop by about 11% per year.
But you also don’t want to wait too long. Once you get past 32 years old, every year that you wait increases your odds of divorce. They start going up by roughly 5% per year.
Why do your divorce odds keep dropping from 18 to 32 but then start going up again after that? Some of this is due to the fact that people who get married at a later age are sometimes entering a second marriage. Second marriages themselves have higher divorce rates than first marriages.
Of course, this is just a predictor of divorce odds. There is no guarantee that you will or will not get divorced, whether you get married at the optimal time or not. If you do find yourself moving toward a divorce with your spouse, take the time to look into all of your legal options.