While the discourse about American behavior gets flattened on the global stage, it couldn't be more clear that different states have wildly different social norms. As a perfect example, this map of the median age of first marriage for both men and women highlights the gulf in societal expectations from state to state.
Worth noting, Overflow Data sourced this data from the 2022 American Community Survey, and tracked marriages within one year for those aged 15 to 54. That lower number is concerning, but child marriage is still legal in many states.
Key Findings:
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Utah, unambiguously the state with the highest church attendance, has the lowest median age for women at just 25.3 years. For men, Wyoming takes that spot at an even 27 years.
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Washington, DC has the highest median age for both women and men with 30.7 years and 32.5 years, respectively.
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Based on this high-level data, women have a gap of 5.4 years depending on where they live in the US. Meanwhile, men have a similar gap of 5.5 years in their median ages.
Overflow Data via r/DataIsBeautiful.
[Correction 2/2: Updated headline and copy to say median and not average in some instances]
