“The ideal age to get married, with the least likelihood of divorce in the first five years, is 28 to 32,” says Carrie Krawiec, a marriage and family therapist at Birmingham Maple Clinic in Troy, Michigan. “Called the 'Goldilocks theory,' the idea is that people at this age are not too old and not too young.”
There is no best age to get married that applies to everyone. You're never too old for it, and while it's very possible to get married before you're ready, it's often not necessarily because you're too young to marry.
There has been a never-ending debate about the right age to get married. While some feel 20s is the ideal time to tie the knot, for many 30s is the phase of life when you are more stable and mature to take the plunge. In reality, there are pros and cons to getting hitched at any age.
Getting Married in Your 30s
Dr. Thomas says those who decide to wed in their 30s benefit from emotional maturity. “The partners may have lived more life, had more experiences, and emotionally grown through what they have gone through and been exposed to,” she continues.
It Varies From Person to Person
The point is, just because getting married in your 30s may quickly be becoming the new normal, that doesn't mean you should feel awkward or out of place if that doesn't reflect your life at all. You may get married in your 20s, 40s, 50s, or never.
"The Marriage Crunch" was based on a study by Harvard and Yale researchers that projected college-educated women had a 20 percent chance of getting married if they were still single at 30, a 5 percent chance at age 35, and just a 2.6 percent chance at age 40.
David Gibson, writer for Marriage Today, points out that an increasing proportion of young adults had not married yet and sited many benefits to marrying later in life (2021). Individuals who marry after 30 are more likely to be financially stable and more mature. More importantly, they are staying together longer.
Being single in your 30s doesn't mean you weren't with someone you thought you'd spend the rest of your life with. It also doesn't mean you'll stay single for the rest of your life too. But for now, as long as it takes to find the right one, you're single and life is easy.
And according to the National Survey of Family Growth, getting married between 28 and 32 is the lowest risk for divorce. The age of 18 might be considered “adult,” but it may not be the perfect age to get married.
For men, “early” meant a wedding before the age of 26, “on time” referred to between the ages of 27 and 30, and “late” meant they married after 30. Outcomes exhibited that people who got married on time or late were least likely to convey depressive symptoms in midlife.
Couples in their 30s who have dated for at least 2 years are said to have an almost 80% success rate in marriage.
“The ideal age to get married, with the least likelihood of divorce in the first five years, is 28 to 32,” says Carrie Krawiec, a marriage and family therapist at Birmingham Maple Clinic in Troy, Michigan. “Called the 'Goldilocks theory,' the idea is that people at this age are not too old and not too young.”
Many people who marry later in life say they weren't interested in getting married earlier because they were pursuing education and careers or were disillusioned by previous relationships. Having children wasn't a priority for some, and in cases where it was, parenthood and marriage didn't have to go hand-in-hand.
From the mid-1970s until 2018 there was a steady and ongoing increase in the median age of men and women at first marriage. This upward trend halted between 2018 and 2020 but continued again in 2021. In 2021 the median age of men was 30.8 years, and women 29.4 years.
No, dating does not get harder as you grow up. Dating can be continued or started at any age because a person should not take you by just your age, height or weight. They should date you by looking at your inner beauty. Age is just a number, so don't worry about it.
In their 20s, people have sex an average of more than 80 times a year, or slightly more than once every five days. By the age of 45, people have sex an average of 60 times per year, or just over once a week.
The bigger the pool of options, the closer to exactly 37% you can get. Research about successful marriages seems to support the age sweet spot of 26. In July 2015, the University of Utah sociologist Nicholas H. Wolfinger discovered that the best ages to get married in order to avoid divorce are between 28 and 32.
Some aspects of dating in your 30s make the process harder—such as a shrinking candidate pool. You can no longer meet potential partners at school and probably aren't attending parties and social gatherings as often. These are hot spots for fresh encounters.
Whether you're 35 or 75, it's never too late to fall madly (or gently and even sacredly) in love. Just ask actress Ellen Burstyn and a host of other women who found themselves in the heat of romance when they least expected it. My mother met the love of her life when she was 84.
Are you in your mid-thirties and still single? If you are, you're not alone. About 56% of people in their thirties are married, while the other 44% of thirty-somethings are single.
We determined that the median engagement age in the United States is 27.2 years for women, and 28.7 years for men — a 1.5 year difference. Furthermore, the median amount of time a couple dates before the proposal is 3.3 years.
Romantic couples with a large age gap often raise eyebrows. Studies have found partners with more than a ten-year gap in age experience social disapproval. But when it comes to our own relationships, both men and women prefer someone their own age, but are open to someone 10-15 years their junior or senior.