The numbers behind
life together.
Clear answers about marriage, divorce, cohabitation and dating. With the evidence to understand them.
Try age at first marriage or California
A closer look at first marriage
Later first marriages.
A clearer picture.
In 2024, the U.S. median age at first marriage was 30.8 for males and 28.8 for females. Explore the estimates—and their uncertainty.
Understand the measureU.S. Census Bureau, ACS B12007, 2024. Population aged 15–54.
Median age at first marriage
United StatesAge in years; ACS 1-year estimates
Start with a question
Know the definitions- What is the U.S. divorce rate?
Understand crude divorce rates, reporting exclusions and why they do not measure lifetime divorce risk.
- How many people married in the past year?
Survey-reported recent marriage among residents, kept separate from recorded wedding events.
- How many marriages end in divorce?
Why a universal percentage is misleading, and what an actual marriage-cohort estimate can tell us.
Put a place in context
Recorded events, resident characteristics and household measures—kept separate.
From the data desk
New: marital status across states, counties and cities
First-marriage timing: comparing 2021 and 2024
A reproducible state comparison with the same survey product, population and uncertainty method.
Numbers you can cite
Every dataset includes its source, period, definitions and limitations. Downloads carry that context with them.
Visit the data libraryOne question. The right measure.
What are we counting?
Why these numbers cannot replace one another
Two people can report the same marriage. A household can contain people beyond a couple. A recorded wedding can involve visitors. Each measure needs its own unit, population and geographic definition.