Final Report (PDF, 2132K) - Measure DHS

2.3 Age at First MarriageWomen who reported ever being in union were asked the month and year in which they beganliving with their first partner. If they could not report the year, they were asked the age when they begantheir first cohabiting relationship. Sixty-two percent of respondents reported the year and the month offirst marriage, 20 percent reported the year only, and 18 percent reported the age at first marriage. Fromthese data, statistics on age at first marriage were calculated. However, caution should be exercised whendrawing conclusions, since some respondents, particularly older women, may have had difficultyrecalling the date of first marriage or their age at first marriage, and interviewers had to probe for theinformation.Table 2.3 shows the distribution of women in age groups by age at first union. For each agegroup starting at age 25, the median age at first marriage is also shown. (The median age at first marriageis not shown for age groups under age 25 because less than 50 percent of respondents had married(women 15-19) or some single members of the age group were younger than the median age at marriageof those who had married and, if they married, could lower the median age (women 20-24).)Table 2.3 Percent Distribution of Women by Age at First Union and Median Age at First Union,According to Current Age, ODHS, 1986Age at First UnionNumber MedianCurrent Never Total of Age atAge Married < 15 15-17 18-19 20-21 22-24 25 + Percent Women ist union*15 - 19 88.6 2.0 7.3 2.2 0.0 0.0 0.0 I00.0 110920 - 24 40.1 4.6 14.2 19.5 15.1 6.4 0.0 i00.0 56328 - 29 7.3 7.0 22.1 18.9 19.8 19.3 5.8 i00.0 560 20.230 - 34 0.O 10.4 29.2 20.4 17.5 15.3 7.1 i00.0 548 18.935 - 39 0.0 5.4 25.1 23.2 22.4 14.6 9.2 100.0 478 19.740 - 44 0.0 8.2 24.9 20.5 20.1 16.1 10.3 100.0 478 19.745 - 49 0.O 2.5 20.8 28.5 21.8 15.7 10.7 100.0 477 19.9Total 29.7 8.3 18.6 16.8 14.2 I0.7 5.I 100.0 4213* Defined as the age by which one-half of women have ever marriedThe median age at first marriage for women 25 to 49 is about 20 and shows little variationbetween five-year age groups. This suggests that age at first marriage was stable in Ondo State fromabout 1960 to 1980. However, for the period since 1980 there is evidence that age at first marriage hasincreased. The evidence comes from statistics on the proportion single at age 20 among women 20-24and 25-29. Table 2.3 indicates that 62 percent of women 20-24 were single at age 20 while only 52percent of women 25-29 were single at age 20.Additional evidence of a recent change in the age at first marriage can be obtained by comparingstatistics for Ondo State from the 1980 NDSS and the 1986 ODHS. The proportion of single womenaged 15-19 increased from 80 percent in the NDSS to 89 percent in the ODHS, among women aged 20-24, 40 percent were single in both surveys (National Population Bureau and Institute for ResourceDevelopment/Westinghouse [1988]: Table III-1). Given the problem with age reporting in Nigeria, these13