No rush to the altar: Map shows marriages around the world are happening later in life than ever before

Wedding bells ring the latest in life for Scandinavians and Western Europeans, whose average age at the alter is over 30

Afghanistan has among the lowest average ages for marriage at 20.2

Men marry later in every country: In the United States, the average age women marry is 26.9 and for men it's 29.8

All across the globe people are waiting longer to say ‘I do’ according to a new map that shows the average age for marriages in every country.



People wait the longest in Western Europe, where the average age is over 30. In Afghanistan, one of the youngest, they tend to do it at 20.



And while getting married remains the most common lifestyle choice worldwide, every single country is seeing people bite the bullet later than ever.

Waiting for it: This map shows the average age people the world over tend to marry and that age is trending upward everywhere

The numbers come from 2012 United Nations data, which the site Priceonomics used to assemble the map.



Across the globe, the biggest factor in the age countries tend to marry is economic.



The richer the nation, the longer people wait.



Which explains how common it is for Western Europeans and Scandinavians to wait until after 30. And why in Afghanistan, where living standards are among the world’s lowest, people marry a decade younger.

Gender differences: While everyone is getting married at an older age, men in every country surveyed by the United Nations in 2012 marry at an older average age than their female counterparts

A Pew Research Center 2011 study put the average age for American women to marry at 26.9. The age for men was 29.8.

While the difference between men and women seems minimal, averaging masks a the fact that men tend to marry much older than men worldwide. RELATED ARTICLES Previous

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Next REVEALED: How Elin Nordegren's 'fake text messages' snared... Muslim man convicted for murdering his ex-girlfriend's... Share this article Share According to Priceonomics, women continue to marry much older men in developing countries.

In 39 of the studied countries, 20 percent of women marry by the age of 18.

And in twenty countries, 10 percent of females are married by the age of 15.

Men, on the other hand, are married by 18 in only 2 percent of countries surveyed. Income gap: Young Palestinian groom Ahmed Soboh, 15 and his bride Tala, 14. Income is the largest factor that determines the age at which a nation's citizens tend to marry. The richer the country, the older the average age

In addition to the age when people married rising worldwide, fewer people are now married—at least in the United States—than ever before.



Less than half of adults in America are married compared to 72 percent who were married in 1960.



However, that doesn’t mean the unwed intend to stay that way. According to the study, marriage is the preferred lifestyle worldwide.

