Link.

Thought this was interesting.

This was fairly well accepted already. Local culture differences, it's easier to be single in a city, etc.

Nice to have a large body of statistical evidence I suppose but it's really nothing new.

Yeah, it's what I would have expected based on anecdotal evidence, but I hadn't seen a study supporting it yet.

Unfortunate, yet entertaining, how the thread title got cut off at "likelihood of marriage before age 2".

Aren't there pre-existing political polls or political science/sociology data? Could have sworn there were, although you're right that that's not the same thing as a large-scale academic study.

It's definitely interested, anyway.

I'm not American, but this surely is an interesting study that may tell us a lot of us as humans and as a society. I would risk myself saying we could see the same in my country or Europe.

I would adventure myself (I don't truly know about the non-shown on Hollywood states) and say that, maybe, the states and towns were marriage is more likely to happen at young age is, along with republican, pretty traditionalist?

As I've been growing up I came to the conclusion I would never marry on a country like mine. Laws in this country are completely fucked up (I already have two uncles who are at their 40's living with my grandma because their partner cheated on them, broke up because of it and the judge gave her the custody of their kids and their house). The same goes with traditional vs "modern" kind of relationships. I strongly believe there's no reason to get married under actual circumstances unless you have a traditional kind of relationship. Could it be biggest cities in America goes trough the same? We must assure the survivability of our race as soon as possible, Herr yyahoo!!!

You would venture correctly. The interesting exception I saw was Alaska, which is extremely traditionalist, but also has sections of the state which have a lesser likelihood of marriage. I think this is probably owing to the fact that there are virtually no people living in Alaska, people per square mile-wise, and so getting married sooner is simply harder than most other places.

Conservatives tend to hold tradition on a pedestal, and marriage is one of the favorites. It's unsurprising that simply living in an area with a conservative slant creates a social pressure to get married, while that pressure isn't nearly as strong in liberal areas.

Dammit, ninja'd by an hour! =D

If the marriage isn't forced on the groom or the bride and they love each other, why should this be considered bad? Why do people think that they have to get married in late thirties or even fourties, again?

Marriage to the right person and under the right circumstances, can be very beautiful. And besides, 18+ is adult in most countries; 26 isn't that bad of an age, no?

Still i have to agree, sad indeed to get married only because some abstract ideas enforce you to...

Damn, now i am sad, i wish i was married instead of drifting here and there, shall i change political party and location??

You seem to be the only one here making that inference. No one here is making moral judgements one way or another. These statistics say nothing as to whether these are happy or successful marriages (although I'd imagine if they continue to take data into the future, statistics on divorce rate might shine some light on that).

These statistics are measures of trends within a large population. You are an individual, not a population. Always be mindful of the pitfalls of statistics.

Hey, I'm making moral judgments, I'm just not telling you what they are....

P.S. Are you a lawyer? Seem kind of 'but you didn't catch me doing what i'm doing' oriented, which I associate with lawyers. ; )

Oh yeah, this was a good idea for a thread. :P

I suppose this broaches he question of why do you want to be married.

My dad's a lawyer, and I learned quite a few rhetorical tricks from him. In this case, though, I'm being completely genuine. I'm not making judgements on other people's lifestyle choices.

I'd like to reiterate that populations are not individuals. Each of the data points came from a unique person, each one with their own distinct lives, motivations, and relationships. The whole point of statistics is to collect enough data points that the individuality blurs into background noise and you start to see the "big picture" trends. You can't then turn around and brush all those people with the same stroke.