Chapter 8, Exercises 42, 44, and 49, looked at the how the age at first marriage has changed over time for men and women. One trend was that people have been waiting until they are older to get married.

Generally, men are older at their first marriage than are women, but the gap seems to have been closing. Has the difference in age at first marriage between men and women really been declining?

Data From Chapter 8 Exercise 42

The graph shows the ages of both men  and women at first marriage (www.census.gov).

Age at First Marriage 28 26 24 22. + 1889 1919 1949 Year 1979 2009