Why can teenage marriage-age averages be misleading?
Last reviewed:
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.
Sources used
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