In recent decades age at marriage has risen most rapidly in Asia, the Near East, and North Africa. Changes are less striking in sub-Saharan Africa, where age at marriage remains low, and Latin America, where age at marriage rose earlier. Still, even in sub-Saharan Africa the percentage of women married by age 20 has decreased by at least 10 percentage points in 9 of the 21 countries with survey data (see Table 5).

Young men and marriage. The age at which men marry receives less attention than women's age at marriage; little comparable information is available. Although young women who remain single are becoming increasingly common, single young men have long been more common in most parts of the world (554) because in nearly all societies men marry at older ages than women and tend to be at least several years older than their wives. Thus mean age at marriage for men ranges from early to late 20s. Readiness to marry, often traditionally defined for young women by onset of menses or physical development, may be economically defined for men. Where men are expected to demonstrate an ability to support a wife and family, they may not be considered fit for marriage until their mid to late twenties or until they have completed their schooling or an employment training program (440).

Education and age at marriage. As formal education has become more available in developing countries, it has become a factor in delayed marriage. Women who complete at least primary education tend to marry later (54). For example, in every sub-Saharan country, among women ages 20 to 24, the percentage who completed primary school is much higher among those who married after age 20 than among those who married earlier (see Table 5). In Latin America women in Brazil, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, and Paraguay who delayed marriage until after age 20 were two to three times more likely to have completed seven years of school than those who married earlier (450). The association also is strong in Asia and the Near East.

Education remains out of reach for many, particularly for young women, because many developing countries do not provide schooling for all young people, particularly in rural areas and at the secondary level (485). In Kano State in northern Nigeria, for example, 30,000 girls complete primary school each year, but government secondary schools accommodate only one- tenth of them. Although the rate of enrollment of young women in secondary schools more than tripled in Africa and nearly doubled in Asia between 1960 and 1980, the rate of enrollment of boys remains higher (207, 485). Among both sexes urban adolescents are much more likely than rural adolescents to obtain more than six years of education (450).

In most areas women who attain more formal education are more likely to delay childbearing, as well as marriage, than their peers with little or no schooling. Women who begin childbearing early rarely return to school—schools forbid it or childcare responsibilities prevent it (see Chapter 2.5, Social and Economic Consequences of Early Childbearing). Women who leave school early, whatever the reason, usually marry and begin childbearing within a year (39).