Couples Advised to Marry Their Age

 Posted on December 03, 2014 in Divorce

There is no shortage of marriage advice that exists today, likely in an effort to help others stay together and decrease

Practical Advice

Over the last several decades, many have attempted to analyze several factors that contribute to a marriage in order to determine whether one would be successful or not. According to a recently published article, one particularly telling factor in determining the success of a marriage is the relative age of each party. More specifically, the research found that the smaller the age difference between spouses, the more likely the marriage would last.

The study involved observing over 3,000 recently married and divorced couples whose relative ages ranged from the same age all the way to 30 years difference between ages. The findings show that out of all couples, those with the same age are least likely to divorce, and the closer a couple is in age, the greater the chance their marriage would be successful. Even couples with a one-year age difference had a three percent more likely chance of getting divorced than couples with no difference in ages. Those with five years were 18 percent more likely to get divorced, age differences of 10 years between spouses resulted in 39 percent more likely to get divorced, couples with 20 years difference between them were 95 percent more likely, and those with 30 years age difference were 17 percent more likely to end their marriages.

Age as a Factor

With such a clear correlation shown between age difference and marriage success, the next logical question asks why age is such a big contributor to whether a marriage lasts. Some say that age is a reliable predictor in this scenario because with age come differences in life experiences, stages, and generational differences in culture. This can include everything from technological practices to social norms, to fashion trends and popular culture.

Of course, age alone cannot be considered as the only factor in predicting the outcome of a marriage. For example, the same researcher who conducted the above referenced study also found that when spouses have children, their chance of divorce decreases by about 76 percent. In other words, just because there is a correlation between difference in age and likelihood of divorce does not necessarily mean a large age difference between spouses actually causes the breakdown of the marriage.

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