The age at which you get married can be a predictor of divorce. It influences the odds. That is to say, there is no age that guarantees divorce and no age that guarantees it won’t happen, but there are simply some age brackets at which divorce is more common.
Researchers can chart that data, and they have found that getting married at 32 years old gives people the lowest odds of divorce. For every year prior to that, their odds of divorce go up by 11%. This means that the odds aren’t that different at 31 or 33, but they would be significantly different at 21 or 23.
Should you wait indefinitely?
Putting off marriage can provide stability on numerous levels, such as allowing couples to advance further in their careers so that it’s easier for them to provide for themselves in their 30s than it would have been if they got married in their 20s. The financial pressure isn’t the same, so the marriage is more stable, even if the individuals themselves are not different.
But that doesn’t mean you should continuously put off marriage if you want the lowest odds of divorce. After you reach age 32, those odds go back up again for every subsequent year. They increase a bit slower, going up by around 5% per year.
Legal options during a divorce
As noted above, divorce can happen at any age, and many couples split up every year in the United States. If you find yourself in this position, it is very important to understand all of your rights when dividing property or splitting up custody time with your children.