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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2010 Dec 15.
Published in final edited form as: J South Hist. 2010 Feb;76(1):39–70.

TABLE 1.

Nuptiality Measures for the White Population of the United States, 1850–1880a

Census
Year		 Mean Age at
Marriage		 Percent
Married
15–19		 Percent
Married
20–24		 Percent
Married
25–29		 Percent
Married
30–34		 Percent
Married
35–39		 Percent
Single
45–54		 Sex
Ratio
Ages		 Marital
Sex
Male Female Male Female Male Female Male Female Male Female Male Female Male Female 20–29b Ratioc
United States
 1850d 26.8 23.1 1.7 12.2 23.3 52.7 58.5 77.3 78.0 85.6 86.4 90.3 7.3 6.7 104.7 1.01
 1860d 26.9 22.8 1.6 12.4 22.9 54.0 59.5 78.4 78.4 87.4 86.2 90.4 6.8 6.7 103.1 1.00
 1870d 26.8 23.2 1.6 10.9 24.6 52.6 59.3 76.5 78.1 85.2 86.2 89.8 6.8 6.6 96.1 0.86
 1880 27.1 23.4 1.1 11.0 20.5 49.4 57.6 76.1 75.9 85.4 84.9 89.1 8.3 7.1 104.9 1.01
Northern Census Regions
 1850d 26.9 23.4 1.3 10.3 22.2 50.6 59.3 76.6 79.2 85.4 87.1 89.8 6.2 6.8 101.6 0.98
 1860d 26.6 23.0 1.1 10.7 22.3 52.4 62.2 78.1 81.4 87.4 88.2 90.6 5.6 6.5 98.3 0.93
 1870d 27.0 23.3 1.1 9.7 22.9 51.3 58.8 76.4 78.8 85.8 87.3 90.0 5.7 6.4 97.3 0.89
 1880 27.4 23.8 0.7 9.0 18.4 46.6 56.3 75.0 76.6 85.5 85.9 89.3 6.8 6.7 103.0 0.98
Southern Census Regions
 1850d 26.5 22.4 2.7 16.5 29.0 57.4 60.4 79.3 78.1 86.4 85.9 91.9 6.8 6.3 102.9 0.94
 1860d 26.6 22.3 2.8 15.8 27.4 57.4 60.5 79.4 79.0 87.6 85.4 89.9 6.4 7.2 104.0 0.94
 1870d 25.9 23.0 2.6 13.2 32.7 55.0 64.4 76.7 82.0 83.2 87.9 88.7 5.1 7.0 87.5 0.70
 1880 25.9 22.4 2.1 16.7 27.6 55.7 66.8 78.1 79.8 84.3 88.0 87.4 7.6 9.0 103.5 0.96
New England Census Region
 1850d 27.5 24.9 1.9 7.7 18.1 39.7 53.9 69.2 77.3 80.2 83.7 84.4 7.8 8.9 96.6 0.91
 1860d 26.9 24.1 1.6 7.1 21.5 41.5 59.9 71.7 79.5 80.7 87.5 87.4 6.4 9.6 89.3 0.80
 1870d 27.7 25.0 1.3 6.9 19.3 40.4 56.2 67.7 74.9 78.9 84.0 84.3 6.4 8.4 90.2 0.77
 1880 27.5 24.9 1.1 6.7 19.3 37.7 52.5 64.9 73.7 79.9 86.2 84.1 8.2 11.1 93.9 0.83
Mid-Atlantic Census Region
 1850d 27.0 23.8 1.3 8.5 20.4 46.4 59.4 72.9 78.4 83.1 86.5 88.2 7.4 7.9 97.2 0.93
 1860d 26.6 23.7 1.1 8.7 21.4 46.7 61.8 73.4 80.1 84.1 87.7 88.6 6.7 7.8 90.9 0.83
 1870d 26.7 23.9 1.5 8.3 22.6 45.4 58.7 72.4 79.3 82.5 87.5 87.7 7.1 8.7 92.3 0.81
 1880 27.4 24.5 0.7 6.5 18.7 41.1 56.7 70.0 76.5 81.3 85.6 86.6 6.9 8.4 92.4 0.83
East–North Central Census Region
 1850d 26.1 22.2 1.1 12.4 24.9 61.8 64.5 85.0 83.1 91.4 91.4 94.5 5.1 3.6 108.2 1.05
 1860d 26.1 22.1 1.0 12.9 22.2 61.0 65.6 84.9 84.5 92.6 91.1 93.5 5.2 3.5 107.0 1.04
 1870d 26.5 22.8 0.7 10.5 23.1 56.2 61.7 80.3 81.1 90.1 90.5 93.6 5.2 4.1 99.0 0.90
 1880 27.3 23.5 0.6 9.8 18.1 49.2 58.5 79.1 79.1 88.8 87.3 91.6 5.7 4.3 108.1 1.03
West–North Central Census Region
 1850d 26.6 21.4 1.0 20.5 27.5 66.2 58.1 90.9 78.1 90.9 90.0 97.0 5.9 2.6 121.0 1.29
 1860d 26.6 21.5 1.1 16.0 23.7 66.6 60.1 85.9 81.9 94.9 87.3 95.1 6.1 3.2 115.7 1.24
 1870d 27.0 22.2 1.5 13.3 23.7 64.0 57.7 85.7 78.1 91.7 86.4 93.7 6.2 2.6 112.8 1.15
 1880 27.6 22.3 0.7 13.0 18.0 58.0 54.5 85.0 74.7 92.6 83.9 95.3 7.4 3.1 120.3 1.27
South Atlantic Census Region
 1850d 26.2 22.9 2.8 15.2 27.4 52.4 60.2 76.3 78.1 82.9 87.4 90.7 7.7 7.8 98.9 0.88
 1860d 26.4 22.9 2.7 12.5 25.3 51.3 60.3 75.4 80.7 84.1 87.5 88.3 6.7 9.4 96.0 0.82
 1870d 25.6 23.4 2.7 10.9 31.9 52.6 65.0 74.1 82.3 79.4 89.2 86.2 6.0 8.5 86.1 0.66
 1880 25.8 23.2 2.2 12.4 25.6 51.1 67.3 73.9 79.5 82.3 89.5 84.4 7.9 11.0 100.2 0.89
East–South Central Census Region
 1850d 25.9 22.1 2.8 16.0 29.8 62.4 64.1 81.9 82.9 90.5 88.7 93.2 5.6 4.3 105.9 0.95
 1860d 26.3 22.3 2.9 16.8 29.7 60.6 64.3 81.8 80.7 90.8 87.1 90.9 5.2 4.2 106.0 0.97
 1870d 25.7 23.3 2.6 12.5 32.7 54.8 65.6 77.0 84.4 83.8 89.4 90.4 4.4 5.4 84.3 0.67
 1880 25.8 22.4 2.0 17.9 31.4 54.8 69.2 79.0 82.2 82.7 87.8 87.8 5.2 8.5 101.3 0.91
West–South Central Census Region
 1850d 27.2 20.9 1.8 24.6 30.3 63.8 53.7 85.2 68.6 88.4 78.0 93.8 12.4 5.9 112.2
 1860d 26.7 20.5 3.0 23.8 26.1 70.2 56.2 85.8 73.8 90.7 80.3 92.9 11.2 6.3 125.0 1.36
 1870d 26.1 21.4 2.8 20.9 33.5 63.1 62.6 83.6 79.0 93.0 84.5 92.7 6.7 5.1 99.3 0.88
 1880 26.0 21.0 2.1 24.1 25.4 67.1 63.0 85.5 77.3 91.7 85.3 94.0 10.5 4.5 114.1 1.22
Mountain and Pacific Census Regions
 1850d 5.5 16.3 23.0
 1860d 32.8 1.8 32.4 9.2 68.1 20.9 77.3 35.6 84.1 46.7 32.2 289.2
 1870d 30.2 20.1 0.8 27.5 13.6 71.0 30.3 80.9 46.5 85.3 55.8 93.2 27.8 9.6 153.5
 1880 29.2 21.9 1.0 15.1 12.3 62.6 31.3 85.7 52.2 90.1 61.2 95.2 29.2 3.9 158.7 2.55

Source: 1850–1880 IPUMS samples (Ruggles et al., 2004).

Notes:

a

Blank cells had less than 100 cases in sample. Italicized values are based on 100–200 cases.

b

Number of white males age 20–29 per 100 females age 20–29.

c

Ratio of expected male to female marriages.

d

1850–1870 estimates based on imputed relationships.