Measuring age differences among different-sex couples: Across religions and 130 countries, men are older than their female partners

Abstract

Cross-national studies of age patterns among couples have tended to compare the ages at which men and women first marry, but few have analysed age differences between current spouses or cohabiting partners (i.e. partner age gaps). We address this gap in the literature by using recent census and survey data to analyse age differences between current partners in 130 countries. Worldwide, men are an average of 4.2 years older than their wives or cohabiting partners. However, age gaps vary by region, ranging from 8.6 years in sub-Saharan Africa to 2.2 years in North America. The religious group with the largest age gap is Muslims (6.6 years), while the smallest age gap is seen among Jews (2.2 years). Differences between Muslims and non-Muslims remain even after controlling for country-level gender inequality and per-capita GDP.

Supplementary material is available for this article at: https://doi.org/10.1080/00324728.2022.2094452

Keywords:

• age differences
• partners
• religion
• singulate mean age at marriage
• age-heterogamous marriages

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 All four authors are based at the Pew Research Centre, Washington, DC, USA; Conrad Hackett is also at the University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA.

2 Please direct all correspondence to Stephanie Kramer, 1615 L Street NW, Suite 800, Washington, D.C., 20036, USA; or by E-mail: [email protected].

3 This paper relies on a global data set created for the Pew Research Center report, Religion and Living Arrangements Around the World (https://www.pewforum.org/2019/12/12/religion-and-living-arrangements-around-the-world/). Some of the results we report here are mentioned in that report and a related blog post. This work is part of the Pew-Templeton Global Religious Futures project, which is funded by The Pew Charitable Trusts and the John Templeton Foundation (Grant number 61059). The paper has benefited from the contributions of other Pew Research Center colleagues, including Alan Cooperman, Dalia Fahmy, and Yunping Tong.