Key Statistics from the National Survey of Family Growth

 

M Listing

• Marriage
  • Ever married
  • Current formal marital status
  • Marriage probability
  • Outcome of first marriage (marital dissolution and divorce) -See Divorce and marital disruption
  • Attitudes about marriage - See Attitudes: Marriage and cohabitation
• Menarche
• Mistimed pregnancy

 

Marriage

 

Ever married

• Percent of women and men 15-44 years of age in 2002 who were ever married:
  • Women - 58.2%
  • Men - 50.7%

  Sources:

  • Series 23, No. 25, Table 47 [PDF - 4.7 MB]
  • Series 23, No. 26, Table 30 [PDF - 3.5 MB]

 

Current formal marital status

• Percent  distribution of women and men 15-44 years of age by current formal marital status, 2002:

  Marital status	Women	Men
  First marriage	37.5%	35.0%
  Second or later marriage	8.5%	7.2%
  Separated, divorced, or widowed	12.1%	8.4%
  Never married	41.8%	49.4%

  Sources:

  • Series 23, No. 25, Table 46 [PDF - 4.7 MB]
  • Series 23, No. 26, Table 29 [PDF - 3.5 MB]

 

Marriage probability

• Probability of first marriage among men and women 15-44 years of age before reaching specified age, 2002:

  	By age 20	By age 25	By age 30	By age 35
  Women	17%	51%	73%	82%
  Men	7%	36%	61%	75%

  Sources:

  • Series 23, No. 25, Table 50 [PDF - 4.7 MB]
  • Series 23, No. 26, Table 32 [PDF - 3.5 MB]

 

Menarche (age at first menstrual period)

• Mean age at first menstrual period for women 15-44 years of age in 2002: 12.6 years

  Source: Series 23, No. 25, Table 30 [PDF - 4.7 MB]

 

Mistimed pregnancy

• Percent of pregnancies that were mistimed (i.e., a pregnancy that the mother wanted to have eventually but it occurred too soon) among women 15-44 years of age, in 2002: 20.8%

  Source: Series 23, No. 25, Table 21 [PDF - 4.7 MB]

• Percent  distribution of mistimed pregnancies (leading to births or spontaneous loss in January 1999-2002) to women 15-44 years of age in 2002, by how much too soon it occurred:
  • Less than 2 years too soon: 41.9%
  • 2-3 years too soon: 19.3%
  • 3 or more years too soon: 38.8%

  Source: Series 23, No. 25, Table 22 [PDF - 4.7 MB]