Causes of increasing ages at marriage: an international regression study

The mean age at marriage is increasing in nearly all regions of the world, with the gender age difference at marriage tending to decrease. Five hypotheses for these trends (economic modernization, supply and demand, social/cultural/religious influences, healthcare quality, and longevity risk sharing) are tested through cross-country regression analyses of the timing and prevalence of marriage, using 40 explanatory variables from 156 countries. The dependent variables are female mean age at marriage, gender age difference, and proportion of females married by age 20-24. Ample evidence of the impact of economic modernization and education is found. The influence of cultural beliefs is evidenced by the presence of religious variables in several selected regression equations. KEYWORDS. Marriage patterns, international comparison, cross-sectional regression, spatial autocorrelation