This thread is made about curiosity and I don't expect it to live very long, but...
I've been wondering the ages people are getting married in the US and maybe in the UK too and how soon that's expected to happen. What do you think is the most common age to get married in your country/culture? And how long do the couples usually date before it? Do people usually live together at first and then get married or is it expected that people first get married and then move together?
To me it seems that people in the States are getting married sooner than over here. Like after one or two years? Maybe that's just my imagination and/or I've just encountered unusual couples. :P To me the idea seems weird because in Finland it's not common to marry at the young age. People getting married when they are 20 or less are almost always either hardcore Christians or have been together forever (like; since they first realised that they like boys/girls, from their early teens). Here the average age of women getting married for the first time in their lives was 30,2 and for men the average was 32,5 (2009). Also the age for women to have their first baby is rising all the time and is probably over 30 at the moment. I think that the most common wedding couple is probably 26-years-old woman and 28-years-old man.
People also are in a relationship and also engaged several years before they get married. I don't think there are any statistics about this, but my guess would be that people usually date eachother one or two years, then they move together and after couple of years they might get engaged and start planning the wedding.
My humble opinion is that people are afraid of getting married. The culture of freedom, forever-lasting youth etc. makes people to become distressed about making "lifetime-promises". On the other hand it's wise to get to know the person really well (=live together). Of course the other reason is that people are more and more educated and they don't want to have babies, get married etc. until they life has settled down after studies.
I've been wondering the ages people are getting married in the US and maybe in the UK too and how soon that's expected to happen. What do you think is the most common age to get married in your country/culture? And how long do the couples usually date before it? Do people usually live together at first and then get married or is it expected that people first get married and then move together?
To me it seems that people in the States are getting married sooner than over here. Like after one or two years? Maybe that's just my imagination and/or I've just encountered unusual couples. :P To me the idea seems weird because in Finland it's not common to marry at the young age. People getting married when they are 20 or less are almost always either hardcore Christians or have been together forever (like; since they first realised that they like boys/girls, from their early teens). Here the average age of women getting married for the first time in their lives was 30,2 and for men the average was 32,5 (2009). Also the age for women to have their first baby is rising all the time and is probably over 30 at the moment. I think that the most common wedding couple is probably 26-years-old woman and 28-years-old man.
People also are in a relationship and also engaged several years before they get married. I don't think there are any statistics about this, but my guess would be that people usually date eachother one or two years, then they move together and after couple of years they might get engaged and start planning the wedding.
My humble opinion is that people are afraid of getting married. The culture of freedom, forever-lasting youth etc. makes people to become distressed about making "lifetime-promises". On the other hand it's wise to get to know the person really well (=live together). Of course the other reason is that people are more and more educated and they don't want to have babies, get married etc. until they life has settled down after studies.
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