Mean age of women at first marriage in Europe

At what age do European women get married?

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On this map we can see at what age women in Europe get married for the first time. What stands out straight away are two things, the high ages and the east-west divide.

In most European countries, women are over or close to 30 when they get married. In Sweden (34.8), Spain (34.7) and Norway (34.1) the average is over 34. It seems that the further west one goes in Europe, the higher the average age.

There are four countries where the average age of women at their first marriage, is far lower than other European countries: Ukraine (24.9), Belarus (25.1), Turkey (25.2) and North Macedonia (26.6).

Now, keep in mind that this does not have to mean that women are getting in a relationship or start a family at a later age. If we look at the map of the share of births outside of marriage, it seems that more couples are having kids first and then get married (or not get married at all). However, if we look at the map of the fertility rates in Europe, it does seem that there is some relation between the age of marriage and the fertility rate.

Data for this map comes from Eurostat.