Age & Marriage

Why can teenage marriage-age averages be misleading?

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Answer

Direct answer

Most women aged 15–19 who will marry later have not yet had a first marriage, so their marriage age is unavailable at the time of the survey. Calculating an average only among the minority already married selects the earliest marriages and pushes the estimate downward. This is a form of incomplete observation, not evidence that the full age group typically marries that young. Older cohorts or survival-analysis methods are needed for a more defensible summary of timing.

Evidence

Sources used

Academic Research · 2022

Factors associated with female age at first marriage in Pakistan

PLOS One

Peer-reviewed analysis of all Pakistan DHS waves, including selection effects in younger age cohorts.View source
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