How does marriage vary by state?

Utah has the highest marriage rate and the youngest average marriage age for both men and women.

Updated January 30, 2025 by the USAFacts team

Does love last? According to the Census Bureau, marriages last an average of 20 years, as of 2023. But that could vary depending on where you live — residents in the northeast, where the population is older on average, also tend to report longer marriages.

The government doesn’t just track marriage data for the romanticism of evaluating love against national and state averages: federal agencies use marriage and divorce data to assess funding needs for programs with spousal benefits, measure the effectiveness of current family policies, and forecast future policy.

How do marriage and divorce rates vary by state?

The US Census Bureau calculates marriage and divorce rate by looking at the “number of women who married or divorced in the last year per 1,000 women age 15 and over.”

Washington, DC, had the nation’s highest marriage rate in 2023 with 22.5 marriages per every 1,000 women. Utah has the highest of all states with 21.9, and Alaska followed with 20.9.

Alaska’s relatively high marriage rate is paired with the highest divorce rate nationwide, 9.9 divorces per 1,000 marriages. This may be age-related; marriage rates are impacted by a population’s age, and are generally higher in states with younger populations. Alaska has the fifth-lowest median age in the US, 36.1.

The lowest divorce rate in the nation was in Vermont, with 4.4 divorces per 1,000 marriages and an average age of 43.4. Vermont is the-third oldest state in the nation behind Maine (44.8) and New Hampshire (43.4).

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At what age do most people get married for the first time?

The median age for first marriages has steadily risen since 1956, the year with the lowest recorded median marriage ages: 22.5 for men and 20.1 for women.

Both men and women are marrying later in life. In 2023, the median age of a first marriage was 30.2 for men and 28.4 for women. In 2013, the median ages were 29.0 for men and 26.6 for women; in 2003, 27.1 and 25.3.

As of 2023, men and women married earliest in Utah, with median ages of 26.8 for men and 25.2 for women.

Later marriages have more variance among states. Men marry the oldest in Hawaii (32.5 years old), New York (32.2) and California (32.1). Women marry the oldest in Washington, DC (31.7), and in New York and Massachusetts (tied at 30.5).

Which states have the largest shares of people who have ever been married?

Nationally, 65.5% of people older than 15 have been married at least once.

State-wise, Idaho has the largest proportion of residents who have ever married, at 71.6%, while New York has the lowest at 61.4%. Idaho’s median age is 37.6 years old, compared to New York’s 40.1. Idaho has a high percentage of married residents despite having one of the youngest median ages in the country— six states and Washington, DC, have a lower median age than the Gem state.

Washington, DC, is an outlier, with 45.6% of its residents having ever married, the lowest share nationwide.

Which states have the longest-lasting marriages?

On average, marriages last longest in Vermont (23.1 years), Wisconsin (22.7), and New Hampshire (22.6). This is related in part to the median age of state residents – marriage lengths correlate with a population’s average age.

Vermont has the longest average marriages and the third-oldest median age of any state, 43.4. New Hampshire, the state with the third-longest marriages, also has an average age of 43.4.

At the other end of the spectrum, the shortest median marriages are in Texas (17.6 years), Alaska (17.7), and Oklahoma and Colorado (tied at 17.9). With an average age of 35.7, Texas residents are also the third-youngest of all states and Washington, DC. Alaskan residents are fifth youngest at 36.1, and Oklahoma is sixth youngest.

With an average marriage length of 10.8 years, Washington, DC, is again an outlier: the average age of the district is 34.9, making DC marriages shorter than marriages in states with similar median ages.

Utah is also an outlier here, but for the opposite reason; its marriages are longer relative to the state’s average age – the youngest in the nation.

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