Table 3.
Pattern of Out-of-State Marriages by Restrictiveness of State Laws, 1968 and 1969 Vital Statistics Marriage Certificate Data
| Married Outside State of Residence (%) |
|||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Earliest Age a Woman Can Marry With Parental Consent in Residence State | Married in State of Residence (1) | State With Lower Minimum Age (2) | State With Equal or Higher Minimum Age (3) | Difference Column (2) – (3) | Number of Observationsa |
| Age at First Marriage = 12–15 | |||||
| Earliest age = 13 or 14 | 94.6 (1.2) | 0 | 5.4 (1.2) | −5.4 (1.2) | 482 [3,889] |
| Earliest age = 15 | 94.7 (1.0) | 3.9 (0.9) | 1.4 (0.5) | 2.5 (1.0) | 581 [3,842] |
| Earliest age = 16 | 77.8 (1.0) | 15.3 (0.9) | 6.9 (0.7) | 8.4 (1.0) | 1,919 [16,654] |
| Age at First Marriage = 16 | |||||
| Earliest age = 13 or 14 | 94.1 (0.9) | 0 | 5.9 (0.9) | −5.9 (0.9) | 1,160 [9,935] |
| Earliest age = 15 | 93.7 (1.0) | 2.1 (0.5) | 4.2 (0.9) | −2.1 (1.0) | 1,133 [7,701] |
| Earliest age = 16 | 88.0 (0.4) | 3.2 (0.2) | 8.8 (0.4) | −5.6 (0.5) | 7,128 [69,042] |
| Difference in Difference | |||||
| Earliest age = 13 or 14 | 0.5 (1.5) | ||||
| Earliest age = 15 | 4.6 (1.4) | ||||
| Earliest age = 16 | 14.0 (1.2) | ||||
Notes: Standard errors are shown in parentheses. Data were collected from marriage certificates by the National Center for Health Statistics. The sample is restricted to first marriages of women who are residents of and get married in 1 of the 32 states that are in a marriage-reporting area (MRA) and have information on marriage laws. See footnote 9 in the text for a list of available MRA states. The marriage certificate data include all records for small states and a random sample for larger states; the probabilities in the table are weighted (unweighted probabilities are very similar).
Weighted observations are shown in brackets.