In Russia, the age of marriage is 18 years.
In Russia, the age of consent is 16 years. The age of marriage for both men and women is 18 years, and 16 years in special cases. In addition, constituent entities of the Russian Federation can reduce the age of marriage to 14 years in the presence of “special circumstances,” such as pregnancy, the birth of a child, or a real threat to the life of one of the persons wishing to get married.
The age of marriage in Lithuania is 18, in special cases 16. However, for many years, both men and women could legally marry at the age of 15. If a girl was pregnant, she could get married at an even earlier age. The age of consent in Lithuania is 14 years old, or 16 years old if the person's partner is over 18 years old.
Average age of newlyweds in different countries of the world
Many people are interested in information about at what age people got married in the Middle Ages. Then the marriageable age was set not by law, but by the church, and ranged from 12-13 years for women and from 15-16 years for men. It was only after the 18th century that the age for marriage was increased to 16 for women and 18 for men. Let's look at modern countries of the world and find out at what age you can get married and get married now among different nations.
Age for marriage in Russia
To the question: “At what age can you get married in our country?” – there is no definite answer. Today, the official age for marriage in Russia is 18 years, and also from 16 years in special cases that are considered by local governments. In reality, couples enter into unions at the age of about 23 years.
Age for marriage in Europe
In most European countries it is legal to get married at the age of 18. The exception is Scotland, where this can be done as early as 16 years old. In reality, of course, in developed European countries people get married much later; the average age of marriage is about 25 years.
Age for marriage in Egypt, UAE, Yemen, Qatar, Oman
Every Muslim girl strives to get married as early as possible. As in many other Islamic countries, in Egypt marriage begins at the age of 16, provided that the bride's parents agree. Without parental consent, Muslims can only marry after 21 years of age. Poorer sections of the population tend to shift the burden of caring for children to the groom's family, so girls can be forced and illegally married off at the age of 9.
And if we consider the question of at what age Egyptian men choose a bride and get married, then the answer will be diametrically opposite - the later, the better. In Egypt, a man can get married at the age of 18, but he must already be rich enough to afford to support his young wife and future children.
Age for marriage in India
In India, the tradition of early marriage has existed for more than ten centuries - during the Muslim conquests, Indians married off their daughters almost from birth so that they would not fall to their enemies. The tradition continued until 1921 - the census showed that more than 500 girls were married off before the age of one year.
Mahatma Gandhi, who himself was forced to marry at 13, advocated raising the marriageable age. If you are wondering at what age do people get married in India today, the country officially allows women to get married at 18 years of age and at 21 for men. But the lower strata of the Indian population still practice early marriage, regardless of the law.
Marriage age in China and Japan
If you move to East Asia, countries as close as China and Japan differ significantly in age at marriage. For example, in Japan, girls can get married at 16, but boys can only get married at 18. A Chinese wedding is officially permitted only from 20 years of age for girls and from 22 years of age for boys - this is the highest threshold for marriage in the whole world.
Age for marriage in Ecuador and Latin America
We have already mentioned that in most Latin American countries, the average actual age of marriage for both men and women is 28 years. However, if we consider the legal norms, then in Ecuador, Venezuela and Colombia, girls and boys are allowed to register marriage from the age of 12 and 14, respectively.
Age of marriage among gypsies
Gypsies are a people who do not have an official age for marriage. If the law does not define at what age gypsies get married, then the reality turns out to be frightening, especially considering how the first wedding night of gypsies is spent. It is believed that a girl is already able to get married and give birth to children from the age of 14, and by the age of 20, if no one has “taken her”, she is considered an “old maid”.
Now you know at what age girls get married and guys get married in different countries of the world. The portal www.svadbagolik.ru is always ready to provide you with interesting information on wedding topics. We wish you to approach your consent to marriage with full awareness and make the right decision!
In Zimbabwe the age of marriage is 21.
Child marriage is a serious problem in Zimbabwe. Religious customs and socio-economic gaps contribute to the spread of the tradition. UNICEF estimates that 34% of women in the country marry before the age of 18. But Zimbabwe adopted a new Constitution in 2013 stating that “no child shall be forced into marriage.” In 2021, the minimum age for marriage was set at 18 years.
I'm already eighteen, I'm ready!
Most of our knowledge about the situation with age restrictions in the United States, unfortunately, concerns exclusively the fact that alcohol in America is available to persons over 21 years of age, and actresses can act in films for adults only after they reach the age of 18. It would seem that these are quite normal restrictions, in some ways even more stringent than similar bans in Russia.
However, in the more mundane matter of American family law, the situation is much sadder. Thus, in 13 US states there is no lower legal age limit for marriage at all. In order for a child to enter into a legal marriage, his parents simply must provide the so-called “justification” to the relevant authorities. US law does not require more. The usual 18-year-old limit for marriage in Russia exists only in six (!) US states.
Such an archaic state of the institution of marriage in the United States also gives rise to an original interpretation of the age of sexual consent, which in the “citadel of progress” also depends on the state and varies from 16 to 18 years. However, unlike Russia, where marital relations in general turn out to be a logical age stage after the age of sexual consent, in the United States this social limiter is practically absent.
As a result, back in the 1920s, the age of sexual consent in the United States had a very strange interpretation, based on the absence of a lower legal age threshold for marriage. Surprisingly, in the first quarter of the twentieth century in the United States, the age of consent was quite at the level of underdeveloped countries - in most states it ranged from 10 to 12 years, and in the state of Delaware it was even set at 7 years (!).
As a result, despite the fact that today in 29 US states and the District of Columbia the age of consent is 16 years old, in 9 states - 17 years old, in 12 states - 18 years old, the legislation of most states takes into account the archaic institution of marriage and suggests lowering the age of consent to 16 and less than years if the victim and the accused were legally married at the time of the sexual contact.
pixabay.com/
Of course, many states lower the age of consent to a limited extent to accommodate marriage. This usually happens if there is not too much of an age difference between the partners, or if the older partner has not reached a certain age. For example, Colorado's age of consent, which is 17, can easily be lowered to 15 if the partner is no more than 10 years older than the minor. In Ohio, where the age of consent is already 16, it can be lowered to 13 if the other partner is under 18.
States like California, where the age of consent is 18 and where two minors of the same age can even be (and often are) prosecuted for consensual sexual relations with each other, are rather exceptions to the general archaism of family law in the United States.
This gives rise to another paradox - despite the fact that many US states have strict legal penalties for sexual intercourse with a person under the age of sexual consent, America has the highest incidence of teenage pregnancy among developed countries.
According to a study by the respected Guttmacher Institute, of the whopping 750,000 teen pregnancies (under 19) each year in the United States, just over half, or 57%, result in births, 29% are abortions, and another 14% are miscarriages.
According to UNICEF, the teen pregnancy rate in the United States is the highest among developed countries and twice the European or Russian average: approximately 53 teenage girls for every thousand give birth to children before even graduating from high school. At the same time, the severity of punishment for sexual relations with a minor is leveled out in the United States by archaic family legislation, due to which marriage turns out to be nothing more than a cover for the sexual molestation of minors.
This fact creates another disproportion: of the indicated figure of 750 thousand teenage pregnancies, about a quarter, and this is almost 175 thousand, are pregnancies of teenage girls who were 17 years of age or less at the time of childbearing. Moreover, the fathers of these children are quite old: about 40% of children born to teenage mothers had fathers aged 20 years or older. As an example of such an unequal marriage, one can cite the shocking story of an 11-year-old bride and a 20-year-old groom.
At the same time, statistics on teenage pregnancies in the United States are stable, and the downward trend is frankly weak. Thus, the average number of teenage pregnancies decreased by only 250 thousand per year, reaching one million in 1970-1990.
pixabay.com/
What age do you get married in France?
In France, women seem to be in no hurry to get married. According to the UN, the average age at which girls accept a marriage proposal is 32 years old.
According to a Eurostat study, 43% of children born in France are born to unmarried couples, the highest rate in the European Union. Living together without a stamp and with children is generally gaining popularity in Europe. French women understand that it is not necessary to get married to have a child.
At what age do people get married in Russia?
Modern legislation clearly defines the age of marriage in Russia. It is the same for men and women – 18 years. However, early marriage is also possible. In special cases, such as pregnancy, young people can obtain special permission from the administration and get married at 16 or even 14 years old.
However, when studying the legislation, it is difficult to fully understand at what age people get married in Russia. To do this, it is necessary to take into account the fact that every year concepts inherent in time arise in the consciousness of society. Young people strive to first get on their feet and only then start a family. Statistics prove this. According to 2021 data, the average age of marriage has increased. Russians prefer to get married between the ages of 25 and 34.
Average marriage age in different religions
In many countries, they are still guided not only by the law, but also by religious views. And for different religions the age of marriage will be different.
Christianity
In Christianity, the age of marriage is not precisely defined, but the religion still sets age limits. Although the age of marriage, the age when you can get married, does not always coincide with the civil age.
In Orthodoxy there is a so-called “Helmsman’s Book”, which specifies two age limits: 15 and 13 years; 14 and 12 years old. Accordingly, the upper bar is for men, and the lower bar is for women.
The Stoglavy Council, according to this book, established the marriage age at 15 and 12 years.
But for Russia such a standard turned out to be unacceptable. The Holy Synod made its changes. Since 1830, men can get married from the age of 18, and women from the age of 16.
The Catholic Church allows young people over 16 years of age to perform wedding ceremonies, and girls over 14 years of age.
Islam
There is no specific age for marriage in Islam.
As Muslim “law” says, everything depends on the individual.
But children should start families only after reaching physical adulthood.
According to Sharia, both parties must be morally prepared to create a social unit.
Judaism
Judaism is one of the religions that encourages early marriage. Boys from the age of 9 are considered men here, but they can only get married after crossing the 13-year mark. Representatives of the fair sex, according to the Talmud, are considered women from the age of three. This means that it is from this time that marriage can be concluded. At such a young age, the girl could be married off by her father, since until she reaches the age of 12 she is completely in his power.
Hinduism
Hinduism also allows child marriage. A girl is considered an adult at 12 years old, and a young man at 16.
True, a couple can create a new unit of society even before the groom reaches adulthood.
But there is another tradition. Having entered into an early marriage, the young cannot stay together for long: the girl spends most of her time in her parents’ house. Only after she turns 18 can she completely move into her husband's house.
Elle Girl Magazine
Your favorite magazine in a convenient format
The magazine for girls ElleGirl.ru is your guide to the world of fashion, beauty and drive. If you are interested in the latest wardrobe, fashionable makeup, cinema news, show business, the lives of stars, personal relationships and their prospects - your virtual magazine for girls is always at hand. One click and you will find out how the relationship between the characters in the series will develop, what your favorite actors look like in real life, where you can see them in the near future, what youth events await you, how to prepare for them, and much more. To keep abreast of fashion events, just read the most fashionable magazine for girls - ElleGirl.ru.
© 2021 ELLEGirl, Hearst Shkulev Publishing / OOO Hearst Shkulev Publishing. All rights reserved.
Source
Religion and early marriage
Most often, early marriages occur among Muslims, although in many Islamic countries they are prohibited by law. But in reality, the police rarely interfere in “family matters” and turn a blind eye to the fact that men marry girls, sometimes even younger than 15 years old.
Not long ago, the world was struck by the story of Nujud Ali, a girl from Yemen who was not afraid to go against centuries-old foundations, ran away from her husband and went to court to get a divorce. Nujood was only 10 years old at the time she went to court. Her husband is over thirty. Nujood received a divorce and was able to return to her parents' house, although her father accepted his obstinate daughter with extreme reluctance.
Following Nujud's example, several more child wives demanded a divorce, and some even managed to get it. However, this rarely happens. According to one judge, "these wives are too young to demand a divorce."
And this is not surprising, because Sharia law does not condemn early marriages. The Prophet Muhammad himself took one of his wives into his house when she was 7 years old, and at 9 or 10 years old she became his wife in every sense. This means there is nothing wrong with early marriages. According to one of the respected sheikhs in Yemen, there is nothing wrong with the fact that the first sexual intercourse brings suffering to girls. It’s an everyday matter, the sheikh believes. They'll get used to it. His own daughter got married at 14 and by the age of 26 had given birth to 10 children. The Sheikh believes that this is how it should be. Good daughter, good wife.
But it is not only Islam that is tolerant of early marriage. The Code of Canon Law allows boys to marry from the age of 16, and girls from the age of 14.
In Judaism, it is considered unacceptable to enter into a marriage before the bride reaches puberty, but with one significant caveat: a girl can be married earlier, starting from the age of 5, if it is the will of her father.
But still, the problem of child marriage is most acute in those countries where the Muslim population predominates.
Young people are in no hurry to get married
The age profile of marriages in Russia is changing. The number of people entering into their first union over the age of 25 is growing. Repeated marriages also shift along the time axis.
This indicates a change in matrimonial stereotypes - early marriages have become unpopular, the average age of brides and grooms has grown, noted Sergei Zakharov .
The matrimonial “landscape” in Russia looks heterogeneous – men and women began to marry at more “diverse” ages. Previous social clichés regarding the “correct” age of first marriage no longer apply.
One thing is obvious: Russians began to marry at a more mature age.
This trend began to take shape in the mid-1990s and began to grow noticeably in the “zero” years: the intensity of registration of unions among men and women over 25 years of age increased, and the number of weddings among young people of student age or yesterday’s college graduates, on the contrary, fell.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5NHSibvWHo
This trend of “maturation” of marriage has replaced the opposite trend - more than thirty years of “rejuvenation” of marriage, the researcher noted.
In the 1960-1970s, sexual “debuts” shifted to earlier ages, and, accordingly, the marriages that legitimized them became “younger.”
This “rejuvenation” was preceded by the “aging” of unions, which was a consequence of the Second World War, which forced weddings to be postponed.
In the second half of the 1990s, “having adequately responded to political and social changes, Russians at the mass level sharply indicated the rejection of the previous model of relatively early marriage,” writes Sergei Zakharov in the article “Marriages and divorces in modern Russia,” published in the journal of the Higher School of Economics. "Demoscope Weekly".
The age of those getting married is increasing
Over the past twenty years, the curve of all marriages - both first and second - has noticeably shifted to the right along the age axis, the expert states. In addition, the kurtosis (sharpness of peaks) in the age distribution of marriages has decreased significantly. These “culminations” became more blurred and flattened. This indicates an increase in the spread of ages at marriage.
Figure 1. Age-specific marriage rates for women: first marriages (left) and remarriages (right), per 1000 persons of the specified age
Source: article by S.V. Zakharov
In 2001, the marriage rate for the 25-34 age group, which had been continuously rising in previous years, exceeded the fairly respectable level of the late 1980s.
Thus, the age marriage rate (the number of unions per 1000 population of the corresponding sex and age) for men of the same age at the very beginning of the 21st century was 35.23 against 31.23 in 1990, and for their peers - 25.14 (2001) versus 22.37 (1990).
Similar processes occurred in the “zero years” and at more mature ages. In 2007, the marriage rate for men over 35 also became higher than at the end of the USSR: if in 1990 it was 8.24, then in 2007 it reached 9.53.
If we compare matrimonial activity at different ages, then among men over 25 years of age the intensity of marriage in 2009 significantly exceeded the indicators of the younger age category.
If among young people the age marriage rate was 45.12, then among the more mature “audience” it reached 48.10.
Marriages are growing up
In parallel with the increase in marriage activity at older ages, in the 2000s there was a slow decline or stagnation in marriage rates for people under 25 years of age (Figure 2, blue curves), emphasized Sergei Zakharov.
In the previous decade, during the period of active political and economic reforms (the late 1980s - the first half of the 1990s), the marriage rate among the youngest grooms and brides also decreased sharply - by more than half.
An increase in age-specific marriage rates among people of the older generation and a decrease in these indicators at a younger age leads to the “maturing” of marriages—an increase in the average age of entering into a union.
If in the second half of the 1990s the average age of those getting married increased primarily due to a decrease in the “concentration” of early marriages, then since the beginning of the last decade, the “aging” of official unions has continued due to a clear increase in the coefficients for older ages.
Figure 2. Age-specific marriage rates for men and women, 1979-2013
Source: article by S.V. Zakharov
The age of registration of first marriage in 2013 compared to 1990 increased by more than three years for both sexes (for men from 23.9 to 27.6 years, for women - from 21.9 to 25.2), calculated researcher. For remarriages, the average age at marriage also increased, although less: for men - from 34.9 to 36.9 years, for women - from 33.3 to 34.6 years.
