UN DESA Population Division · Mean Age at First Marriage, Women
Age at first marriage (women) by country
At what age do women in each country usually first marry?
Of the 191 countries compared in the 2019 edition, Slovenia had the highest reading, 34.0, and Barbados had the lowest reading, 17.0. In the middle country the figure was 24.2. 27 readings from before 2009 are listed but not compared.
Share
Age at first marriage (women) · the 2019 edition
Context statistic
Highest of 191Slovenia
34.001the 2019 edition · values only
The highest and the lowest
The three countries with the highest values of 191 compared, the three with the lowest, and the highest on each continent. This statistic has no better end, so no country is shown as leading.
- 1
- 2
- 3
Lowest in the 2019 edition
Barbados17.0
Niger17.2
Central African Republic17.3
This statistic has no better end: the two ends describe size, not success.
Highest on each continent
02Every measured country
Age at first marriage (women) on a map
Each country is shaded by its value, in five groups holding the same number of countries. Hover a country for its value, or select it to open its profile. Below the map, each continent’s middle country.
Darker is a higher value. This statistic has no better end, so the shades describe size, not success.
- 17.0–21.8
- 21.9–23.2
- 23.3–25.7
- 25.9–29.6
- 29.9–34.0
- Hatched: a reading from before 2009, listed but not compared (27)
- No reading in the 2019 edition
- Europe
30.4
the middle country, of 45 measured · 49 members
Slovenia34.0
Belarus22.5Highest and lowest reading in Europe.
- Oceania
25.0
the middle country, of 14 measured · 21 members
French Polynesia33.8
Kiribati21.6Highest and lowest reading in Oceania.
- Americas
23.9
the middle country, of 39 measured · 48 members
Greenland32.9Barbados17.0Highest and lowest reading in Americas.
- Asia
23.5
the middle country, of 44 measured · 52 members
South Korea31.5
Bangladesh18.8Highest and lowest reading in Asia.
- Africa
21.9
the middle country, of 49 measured · 55 members
Namibia30.3Niger17.2Highest and lowest reading in Africa.
- Every region
22 sub-regions, highest middle country first
- Northern Europe
31.5
the middle country, of 12 measured · 13 members
Estonia33.6
United Kingdom27.0Highest and lowest reading in Northern Europe.
- Western Europe
30.8
the middle country, of 8 measured · 9 members
Netherlands32.4
Belgium26.3Highest and lowest reading in Western Europe.
- Eastern Asia
29.4
the middle country, of 6 measured · 8 members
South Korea31.5
Mongolia23.0Highest and lowest reading in Eastern Asia.
- Caribbean
27.9
the middle country, of 15 measured · 24 members
Montserrat31.9Barbados17.0Highest and lowest reading in Caribbean.
- Southern Europe
27.7
the middle country, of 15 measured · 17 members
Slovenia34.0
Albania24.7Highest and lowest reading in Southern Europe.
- Southern Africa
26.5
the middle country, of 5 measured · 5 members
Namibia30.3
Botswana22.9Highest and lowest reading in Southern Africa.
- Eastern Europe
26.3
the middle country, of 10 measured · 10 members
Hungary32.9Belarus22.5Highest and lowest reading in Eastern Europe.
- Micronesia
25.3
the middle country, of 5 measured · 7 members
Palau28.5Kiribati21.6Highest and lowest reading in Micronesia.
- Western Asia
24.5
the middle country, of 14 measured · 19 members
Bahrain26.9
Palestine22.1Highest and lowest reading in Western Asia.
- Northern Africa
24.4
the middle country, of 5 measured · 6 members
Algeria28.3
Sudan21.9Highest and lowest reading in Northern Africa.
- South America
23.4
the middle country, of 12 measured · 12 members
Suriname29.3
Guyana19.2Highest and lowest reading in South America.
- South-eastern Asia
23.2
the middle country, of 11 measured · 11 members
Singapore27.9
Laos20.7Highest and lowest reading in South-eastern Asia.
- Southern Asia
22.7
the middle country, of 9 measured · 9 members
Sri Lanka23.9Bangladesh18.8Highest and lowest reading in Southern Asia.
- Central America
21.9
the middle country, of 8 measured · 8 members
Costa Rica26.4
Belize20.5Highest and lowest reading in Central America.
- Western Africa
21.8
the middle country, of 15 measured · 16 members
Guinea-Bissau24.1Niger17.2Highest and lowest reading in Western Africa.
- Eastern Africa
21.3
the middle country, of 15 measured · 19 members
Djibouti29.9
Mozambique18.7Highest and lowest reading in Eastern Africa.
- Middle Africa
21.3
the middle country, of 9 measured · 9 members
Gabon25.1Central African Republic17.3Highest and lowest reading in Middle Africa.
- Australia and New Zealand
1 of 2 measured — too few for a middle: Australia.
Australia29.9Highest and lowest reading in Australia and New Zealand.
- Central Asia
4 of 5 measured — too few for a middle: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan.
Turkmenistan23.5
Tajikistan21.0Highest and lowest reading in Central Asia.
- Melanesia
4 of 5 measured — too few for a middle: New Caledonia, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu.
New Caledonia32.8
Papua New Guinea21.7Highest and lowest reading in Melanesia.
- Northern America
4 of 4 measured — too few for a middle: Bermuda, Canada, Greenland, United States.
Greenland32.9
Canada27.2Highest and lowest reading in Northern America.
- Polynesia
4 of 7 measured — too few for a middle: French Polynesia, Niue, Samoa, Tonga.
French Polynesia33.8
Samoa23.8Highest and lowest reading in Polynesia.
03The whole field at once
The spread
191 countries, one dot each, on one scale — further right is a higher value. Half the countries are above 24.2; a quarter are above 28.2, and a quarter below 22.1. The bar in each row marks that continent’s middle country.
04All 218 ever measured
Every country
In order, highest value first. No rank or position is shown: too many countries share the same value for an order to mean anything. Neither end is better. A later age at first marriage follows longer schooling, paid work and changing custom; an early one goes with child marriage, which this site measures directly on its own page. The estimate assumes nobody marries before 15 or for the first time after 50, and sources differ on whether living together counts as marriage, so small gaps between countries mean little.
Showing 25 of 218 countries
Values for the 2019 edition.
05In this edition
Age at first marriage (women) in records
The extremes of the statistic. A record reached by more than one country names none of them.
Highest reading
34.0
Singulate mean age at marriage, women (years)
Lowest reading
17.0
Singulate mean age at marriage, women (years)
06The measure
About age at first marriage (women)
This is the average age at which women first marry, estimated from the share of women still never married at each age in a census or survey — the singulate mean age at marriage, the standard way to compare when people marry across countries. Men's figure from the same source is shown beside it where one exists.
What the number is: Singulate mean age at marriage, women (years).
07Where it fits
Connections
Its part in the Country Index, the statistics whose values line up most closely with it across countries, and others on the same subject.
In the Country Index
Context, with no vote
This statistic is published in full under Gender & Equality and People & Population, but does not help decide any Country Index standing.
Gender & EqualityPeople & PopulationWhich statistics vote, and why
Moves with
Where age at first marriage (women) is higher, these tend to be higher too.
- Women's Empowerment IndexUNDP Human Development Report Office and UN Women · 112 countries in commonρ 0.82
- Anthropic AI Usage IndexAnthropic · 115 countries in commonρ 0.80
- World Energy Trilemma IndexKeyWorld Energy Council · 122 countries in commonρ 0.79
Moves against
Where age at first marriage (women) is higher, these tend to be lower.
- Informal Employment RateILO · 88 countries in commonρ −0.83
- Learning PovertyWorld Bank Group and UNESCO Institute for Statistics · 104 countries in commonρ −0.81
- Child MarriageUNICEF · 115 countries in commonρ −0.79
Rank correlation (ρ, from −1 to 1) across countries, on each statistic’s newest edition, out of 378 statistics sharing at least 80 countries with this one. Two statistics that move together do not cause each other.
08Keep reading
Explore further
The subject
The data, edition by edition
The countries at either end
09Questions
Age at first marriage (women): questions and answers
Which country has the highest age at first marriage (women)?
Slovenia, at 34.0, among the 191 countries compared in the 2019 edition.
Which country has the lowest age at first marriage (women)?
Barbados, at 17.0, among the 191 countries compared in the 2019 edition.
How many countries does the Mean Age at First Marriage, Women cover?
191 in the 2019 edition, and 218 at least once across all editions.
What is the world average age at first marriage (women)?
This site does not calculate a world average, which would depend on how countries are weighted. In the middle country of the 191 compared in the 2019 edition, the figure was 24.2.
Is this UN DESA Population Division’s own ranking?
No ranking is shown. UN DESA Population Division publishes values only, and too many countries share the same value for an ordering to mean anything, so none is derived.
How often is the Mean Age at First Marriage, Women published?
This site holds one edition, describing 2019.
Where does the data come from, and can I download it?
From UN DESA Population Division, under CC BY 3.0 IGO. From the UN Population Division's World Marriage Data 2019, the newest edition. Where one country's newest year holds two readings — often one survey tabulated two ways — the row follows a rule this site states rather than a choice the Division made: latest period, then census before survey before estimate, then the Division's own calculation from the survey. Every edition is on this site’s Datasets pages as a full table, and downloads as a CSV file with every value unrounded.
10Method
Sources, method and citation
Source
Mean Age at First Marriage, Women — UN DESA Population Division
From the UN Population Division's World Marriage Data 2019, the newest edition. Where one country's newest year holds two readings — often one survey tabulated two ways — the row follows a rule this site states rather than a choice the Division made: latest period, then census before survey before estimate, then the Division's own calculation from the survey.
Newest edition
Report year 2019Data year not recorded
Cite the source as: United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division (2019). World Marriage Data 2019 (POP/DB/Marr/Rev2019).
Licence: CC BY 3.0 IGO, checked 2026-09-29.
How this page reads the numbers
- No rank or position is shown: UN DESA Population Division publishes values only, and too many countries share the same value for an ordering to mean anything.
- This statistic has no better end, so the page describes higher and lower values and never calls a country a leader.
- A country is named at an end only when it holds that value alone. Where several share it, the page says how many and names none first.
- The file gives each country’s most recent reading, so the rows are from different years. Readings from before 2009 are listed but left out of every comparison on this page.
- Values are stored exactly as published and trimmed only for display. “The middle country” is the median of the countries measured, not a world average.
The file itself, column by column — where it came from, what each column holds, and every edition as a CSV — is on its dataset page.
Cite this page
Nations Inquiry (2026). Age at first marriage (women) by country: Mean Age at First Marriage, Women, data from UN DESA Population Division. https://nationsinquiry.com/statistics/age-at-first-marriage