Age of Marriage

The bar graph shows the decline, over the past few decades, in the percentage of women aged 15-19 who are married in six selected Arab countries. The table gives us the age of first marriage for men and women in twelve Arab countries, plus Turkey and Iran.

The most dramatic feature of the bar chart concerns the UAE, where the percentage of 15-19 year old married women plummeted from 57% in 1975 to 8% in 1995. Other massive drops were in Libya, from 40% in 1973 to 1% in 1995 and Kuwait, from 38% in 1970 to 5% in 1996. Egypt, Tunisia and Palestine registered less dramatic falls.

The age of first marriage, in the table, showed a range from mid- to late-20s for men and from low- to mid-20s for women.

The only countries to appear in both bar chart and table are the UAE, Kuwait and Palestine. The most dramatic drop in the bar chart was in the UAE. The bar chart showed the number of teenage brides in all six countries has fallen over the past 3-4 decades and the table seems to confirm this because in all 14 countries women are getting married in their early twenties, rather than in their teens.

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