Modern couples don’t get married at as young of an age as they used to. Many people will wait until they are in their late 20s or 30s. In the past, marriage in the early 20s or even the teens was much more common.
One reason that this practice has waned is because these young marriages are statistically unlikely to last. For instance, if someone gets married when they are 20 years old, their divorce odds are 50% higher than that if they had just put off marriage until they were 25. Some studies have suggested that the age with the lowest odds of divorce is around 28, or perhaps slightly older.
Drifting apart
There are a few different problems with getting married young that can lead to a divorce. For one thing, couples can drift apart. They are still going to grow, develop and change as people in the years to come. Brain development doesn’t even finish until around 25 years old. Some young couples will find that they are drifting apart as they change and become incompatible in their relationship.
It can make life harder
But getting married young can also just put more stress on the couple, which may lead to divorce. Maybe they don’t have careers, but just work part-time jobs, so they struggle to make ends meet. Maybe they feel like they need to get a place of their own after getting married, but housing is prohibitively expensive, so they wind up with an unsustainable level of debt. These types of financial pressures could cause the divorce.
Regardless of their marriage age, divorce can be complex for couples as they end their marriages. They need to be sure they understand all of the proper legal steps to take.