Age at Marriage in Palestine

Niveen ME. Abu-Rmeileh, Birzeit University
Ulla M Larsen, University of Maryland

We hypothesized that there are two types of marriage in Palestine. One type includes women, who have lower education, lower income and marry relatives. The second type has higher education, higher income, and marries men with some education. The former type marries at younger and the latter at older ages. In other words, Palestine has a marriage pattern that is similar to that in developing countries and one that is similar to that in developed countries. The analysis was based on the 2004 DHS. The sample analyzed included 10064 women age 10 to 55. The mean age at marriage was 20.1, 25 percent was married by age 17.7 and 75 percent by age 24.8. Higher education was associated with higher age at marriage. For example, women with less than elementary schooling had a median age of marriage of 18.8, while women with education above secondary had a median of 24.4.