I was always certain I would be married by 25. This was based on the hope that I would be done with having my three kids by 30. Of course, I would be having those three kids one right after the other because it is best to have kids as close in age as possible. So many ideals! Do not ask me how that plan went – that’s a story for another blog post! Just know that I certainly thought that I knew the best age to get married.
As far as I am concerned and as far as life has taught me so far, it is easy to put a number or specific expectation on yourself and others but you always have to leave room for the unexpected. The same applies with getting married.
What is the perfect age to get married?
This is subjective and is certainly something that you should decide for yourself based on your personal circumstances. In some cases, and for some women, it will be almost impossible to give an exact answer to this question.
Best age to get married statistics
I posed this exact question to women in a mommy group online: what is the best age for women to get married? Bear in mind that this group might not necessarily only have mothers in it and therefore the responses I received may not be from mothers only. Also remember that each response is coming from someone with their own unique life experiences which shape their perception of the world and more specifically, their perception of the best age to get married.
I did not allow for multiple responses by each voter but I did allow for voters to include their own responses if they did not find any of my options satisfactory. Here are the responses I received represented in a diagram:
As you will see from the diagram, the majority of respondents believe that the best age to get married for women is between 31 and 35. The next highest vote went to ages 26-30.
The lowest number of votes was for ages 36-40. Presumably, this might be because that age range is considered to be too old to get married, especially if you want to have children.
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The second lowest vote was for ‘never’. This is not an option I included but rather one that a respondent added on. Clearly it is a popular enough view that it garnered 10% of the total votes.
The 5 Main ways that you know if you are at the right age for marriage
The perfect age to get married will vary for each person but it will usually be dictated by the following five factors:
- Meeting a suitable mate
This is very simple: if you do not meet any potential suitors, there is no question of marriage. Meeting someone who is well-suited for you brings up the question of whether it is the right time for marriage.
I always imagined that I would be married by 25 at the latest but that was not an option until I met the person whom I felt was best suited to me, and I to him. At that point, I was just about to turn 25 years old and knew I was not about to rush into marriage just to meet my little deadline.
- Financial circumstances
Not everyone takes their financial position into consideration before getting married. However, for those who do, it can be a very important deciding factor. Can you afford to get married? Can you afford to join your financial responsibilities up with some else’s legally?
- Health
While research says the health of your marriage affects your physical and mental health, the state of your health when you are single can also determine whether you choose to get married or not. Do you have any medical problems that might make it difficult for you to tie the knot with your partner? Are you in the right mental health space to agree to marry someone?
- Culture
There are many cultures where it is the norm to get married young and marriage can take precedence over getting an education, for example. In those cultures, you might decide to get married at a relatively young age because it is all you know. In other societies, the reverse is true – getting married and starting a family a little older is not at all unusual.
- Lifestyle
Is your lifestyle set up to include anyone else on a daily basis? Are you ready and willing to share your personal living space with others? Could you imagine compromising on major life decisions because your partner holds a different view from you?
All these factors will influence when you decide to get married. You may answer all questions posed in different ways at various ages in your life.
Is 18 a good age to get married?
In my opinion, yes. That is not to say that there have not been any successful marriages formed between people as young as 18 years old. In my opinion however, at 18, you may not be entirely sure yet what exactly it is that you want in a life partner. This is because you may not yet have sufficient life experience.
Having said that though, even people who are far older than 18 years old can change their idea of who their ideal partner is. At no age in life do your views and opinions become fixed. Also, you may have experienced so much in life already that you know exactly what it is that you are looking for at the age of 18.
GET: Meeting the parents greeting card
Is 30 too old to get married?
I do not believe that 30 years old is too young to get married. There is no age that is ‘too old’ for marriage. This is part of why it is not easy to answer the question of what is the best age to get married.
Telling yourself that there is a specific age that is too old to get married puts a timer on your ability to find love and that is not right.
Do not let the pressure of society or pressure that you put on yourself stop you from patiently waiting to meet someone who is well-suited to you or force you to marry the wrong person.
Can you be single at 32?
You can be single at any age if you know that it is a better option than being in a marriage that is not healthy for you. You can be single at 32 or any other age if you enjoy your own company and focus on achieving your life goals and creating healthy relationships with others.
To conclude…
Do not let the concept of the best age to get married force you into making a decision you might regret later.
Do not let it delay marrying someone that you believe to be your perfect partner either.
I agree with those 20% of respondents who chose ‘when it’s right in her life’.
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I love “when it is right in her life”, because you just don’t know when you might meet that special someone. Some people meet that special some very young and others don’t meet that special someone until we’ll into late adulthood. So it really depends on when you meet the person you think you might marry. I also think it depend on what you were taught as a child. These days, with all the divorce around us, a lot of children on not growing up seeing what a good example of a marriage is, so they are not really prepared for marriage at a young age. However, I think if a child has both parents around who are married, the child might be ready for marriage by 18. Those are my thought though. Thankyou for sharing yours!