I was reading about how young people used to marry in antiquity. It's really amazing by our cultural standards. But here in the U.S., the average age has always been older than that. For example, in 1890, when the U.S. Census Bureau started collecting marriage data, it was recorded that the average age of a first marriage for men was 26 years, and the average age of marriage for women was 22 years.
This is kind of weird given the age of consent laws in the U.S. during the 19th century which varied between 10 and 16, depending on the state and year. The age of consent was the age when it was determined that a boy or girl -- but most often, a girl -- was capable of consenting to any sexual activity. This does not mean minors often married, however. Although minors could, and still can, marry with parental consent in America, most did not marry so young so the average age of women marrying between 1800 and 1900 overall was 20-22 years of age and that of men was about 26 years of age.
This is kind of weird given the age of consent laws in the U.S. during the 19th century which varied between 10 and 16, depending on the state and year. The age of consent was the age when it was determined that a boy or girl -- but most often, a girl -- was capable of consenting to any sexual activity. This does not mean minors often married, however. Although minors could, and still can, marry with parental consent in America, most did not marry so young so the average age of women marrying between 1800 and 1900 overall was 20-22 years of age and that of men was about 26 years of age.
Also back in the day so to speak boys and girls were much more "mature" compared to kids today, tis was life when you reached a certain age you were expected to work and do lots of it.