Women who get married for the first time while they’re very young or over 45 are more likely to see their union end in a divorce than others, statistics show.
There are higher divorce rates among women who were between 15 and 20 years old when they first tied the knot, according to Bureau of Labor figures and data from the American Community Survey, analyzed by University of Maryland sociologist Philip N. Cohen. On average, those marriages—known in the vernacular as “starter marriages”—last between 1 and 10 years.
Another study in 2015 suggests that the best ages for people to enter a long and successful marriage is between 28 and 32.
Read More: What Your Brain Looks Like After 20 Years of Marriage
TIME delved into marriage in a cover story on how the institution has changed, including the latest research on how to boost your chances of staying married—and why. This chart shows who tends to stay married longest:
- Mickey Guyton Is TIME's 2022 Breakthrough Artist of the Year
- The 10 Best Nonfiction Books of 2022
- Column: What Elon Musk Gets Wrong About Free Speech
- The Forgotten Story of One of the First U.S. Soldiers Killed Overseas After Pearl Harbor
- Why You're More Likely to Get Sick in the Winter, According to New Research
- Column: What the Protests Tell Us About China's Future
- 18 Last-Minute Gifts for Everyone on Your List
- Despite World Cup Heartbreak, the Future Looks Bright for Men's Soccer in the U.S.
