While most of us would like to think of child marriage as a dark, archaic practice banished to America's history, there are still many parts of the country that allow children to get married — and in some states, the minimum legal age is as young as 15.

On April 8, 2024, Virginia governor Glenn Youngkin signed House Bill 994 into law, joining just 11 other US states (Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington) in prohibiting minors aged under 18 from getting married.

Elsewhere, laws range from no minimum age in states like California and New Mexico, to 15 years old in Hawaii and Kansas, to 17 in states including Florida, Maine and Oregon.

Delaware became the first state to set the legal marriage age to 18 in 2018, while the majority of the country's other states have their minimum age set at 16.