Marriage is a social union between two persons in a contractual relationship recognized by law. Marriage creates kinship in a socio-cultural sense, i.e. two persons bound in marriage are legally related. In its traditional sense, marriage is meant to be a bond for life but many modern cultures now allow for the dissolution of marriage through divorce or annulment. In western civilisations, marriage is usually limited to two partners. There are cultures however, that allow polygamy. In Islam for example, men are allowed to have multiple wives, while women are only allowed to marry one partner.
For a long time, marriage used to be defined strictly as the union of two persons of opposite sexes. This is no longer the case. Since 2001, ten countries have begun allowing same-sex couples to marry nationwide. Among them are Argentina, Canada, Norway, Spain, South Africa, and Sweden. Other countries, like Brazil, France, Denmark and Germany allow registered partnerships of gay couples that are legally equivalent to traditional marriage. In the United States, same-sex marriage is allowed in some states (New York, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Iowa, Massachusetts, Vermont and the District of Columbia), while others, such as California, recognize same-sex marriages but do not perform them. In numerous other states, the issue is currently being debated, and it is expected that some of them will follow suit and either allow or recognise gay marriage in the future.
The
annual number of marriages in the United States has slowly but steadily declined over the last 20 years. In 2009, 2.08 million marriage ceremonies were performed in the U.S., compared to 2.44 million in 1990. The
marriage rate in the United States, i.e. the number of marriages per 1,000 people, declined simultaneously from 9.8 in 1990 to 6.8 in 2009. On a positive note, it can be said that
the divorce rate in the U.S. declined slightly during the same period, although it is not clear whether this is simply a side-effect of the shrinking number of unions.
Marriage statistics show that
the age at which Americans first get married has changed significantly over the past three decades. In 1970, 41.8 percent of
American women were younger than 20 years of age at the time of their first wedding compared to only 6.94 percent in 2009. The age of men at their first wedding has increased simultaneously, albeit to a slightly higher level, as men are, on average, a little older than the women they marry.
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