Age at First Marriage

Percentage first married by specific exact ages

Definition

1)      Percentage of women and men who were first married or lived with a spouse or consensual partner by specific exact ages.

2)      Percentage of women and men never married.

Coverage:

Population base: Women and men age 15-49 (IR file, MR file)

Time period: Lifetime of the respondent

Numerators:

1)      Number of women (or men) whose first marriage or consensual union occurred before they attained the specified age group (15, 18, 20, 22, 25) (women: v511 < specified age; men: mv511 < specified age)

2)      Number of women (or men) who have never married or lived in union (women: v502 = 0; men: mv502 = 0)

Denominator: Number of women (or men) age 15-49, includingthose who have never been married or lived with a man/woman as if married. This denominator may need to be restricted (see Notes and Considerations below).

Variables: IR file, MR file.

Calculation

Age at first marriage or first union (women: v511; men: mv511): Difference between date when a woman (or man) began living with first spouse or partner and date of birth of woman (or man) in completed single years.

Numerators: Number of women (or men) married by specific exact ages (15, 18, 20, 22, 25) includes women (or men) first in a marriage or lived with a man/woman as if married before earlier specific ages, e.g. the number of women (or men) who married before age 18 includes those who married before age 15. Women (or men) who have never married nor lived with a man/woman as if married are included in a separate category.

Denominator: Number of women (or men) of all marital statuses. In ever-married samples, the denominator is adjusted by the all women (or all men) factors. Denominator for cohort must exclude women who have not yet reached the oldest age of the specific age category (see Notes and Considerations below).

Numerators are divided by the overall denominator and multiplied by 100.

Handling of Missing Values

Not applicable—birth dates of women and men and ages at first marriage were imputed if missing.

Notes and Considerations

Percentages are not calculated for the age at first marriage categories by cohorts of women or men where the youngest member of the cohort has not yet completed the oldest age of the category. For example, percentages for the cohort of women or men 15-19 at the time of the survey will not be calculated for age categories 18, 20, 22, and 25 because some women (or men) who have never been married are still below those ages and could still marry or start to live with a man/woman as if married before reaching those age categories.

References

Koski, A., S. Clark, and A. Nandi. 2017. "Has Child Marriage Declined in sub‐Saharan Africa? An Analysis of Trends in 31 Countries." Population and Development Review 43(1): 7-29. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/padr.12035

Walker, J. 2012. "Early marriage in Africa–Trends, harmful effects and interventions." African journal of reproductive health 16(2): 231-240. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22916555/

Resources

DHS-8 Tabulation plan: Table 4.4

API Indicator IDs:

Women:

MA_MBAG_W_B15, MA_MBAG_W_B18, MA_MBAG_W_B20, MA_MBAG_W_B22, MA_MBAG_W_B25, MA_MBAG_W_NMA

Men:

MA_MBAG_M_B15, MA_MBAG_M_B18, MA_MBAG_M_B20, MA_MBAG_M_B22, MA_MBAG_M_B25, MA_MBAG_M_NMA 

(API link, STATcompiler link)

SDG Indicator 5.3.1: Proportion of women aged 20-24 years who were married or in a union before age 15 and before age 18

WHO 100 Core Health Indicators: Early marriage

MICS6 Indicator PR.4a: Child marriage – before age 15

MICS6 Indicator PR.4b: Child marriage – before age 18

Median age at first marriage

Definition

Median age in years when women and men first lived with spouse or partner as if married.

Coverage:

Population base: Women and men of all marital statuses (IR file, MR file)

Time period: Lifetime of the respondent

Median: Median for completed time periods

Variables: IR file, MR file.

Calculation

Medians are calculated from cumulated single-year percent distributions (see Numerator and Denominator below) of age at first marriage or consensual union (see Age at First Marriage indicator). Median is linearlyinterpolated between the single-year percent distributions that occur at the ages before and after 50 percent of the women (or men) had married for the first time or begun living with a man/woman as if married. (See Median Calculations in Chapter 1).

Numerators: Number of women (or men) who were married or started living with a man/woman as if married at single year of age categories. Women (or men) who have never been married or lived with a man/woman as if married (women: v502 = 0; men: mv502 = 0) are includedin a separate category at the tail of the distribution. In ever-married samples, theall women (or all men) factor is tallied in the category of women (or men) who have never been married or lived with a man/woman as if married.

Denominator: Number of women (or men) of all maritalstatuses. Numerator divided by the denominator, multiplied by 100. In ever-married samples, the denominator is adjusted by the all women (or all men) factors.

Handling of Missing Values

Not applicable—Dates of birth and age at firstmarriage or consensual union were imputed if missing.

Notes and Considerations

Age at first marriage (women: v511; men: v511) is the difference between the respondent’s birth date and date they began living with first spouse or partner and is truncated to years. This age is taken as including up to next completed year of age. For example, the cumulated percentage for women or men with a difference of 19 years (between birth date and date began living with spouse) actually includes all women or men below 20 years of age at first marriage.

Since the median is based on all women or men, including those who have never been married or lived with a man/woman as if married, there may not be a median for younger cohorts of women or men (since fewer than 50 percent of the cohort may have been married or lived with a man/woman as if married). Medians are omitted for women or men whose current age interval includes or precedes the median age at first sex.

Example

For example, the figure below shows the cumulative (weighted) percentage of women age 20-49 who were first married at specific ages. We look for two successive cumulative percentages that bracket 50%. We find that 46% of women age 20-49 were first married at 17 (by 18^th birthday) and 55% at age 18 (by 19^th birthday). Because we know that cumulatively, 50% of women age 20-49 must occur between the 18^th birthday and the 19^th birthday, we know the median age is 18. To be more precise we interpolate between 18.0 and 19.0. The interpolation between these two points reveals a median of 18.5 or the age at which 50% of women age 20-49 experienced their first union or cohabitation is 18.5.

Mathematically, this is equivalent to calculating an interpolated median between the completed ages 17 and 18 and adding one to the result.

References

MacQuarrie, K. L.D., L. Mallick, and C. Allen. 2017. Sexual and Reproductive Health in Early and Later Adolescence: DHS Data on Youth Age 10-19. DHS Comparative Reports No. 45. Rockville, Maryland, USA: ICF. https://dhsprogram.com/publications/publication-CR45-Comparative-Reports.cfm

Resources

DHS-8 Tabulation plan: Tables 4.4, 4.5

API Indicator IDs:

MA_AAFM_W_M2A, MA_AAFM_W_M2B, MA_AAFM_M_M2A, MA_AAFM_M_M2B  

(API link, STATcompiler link)