The given bar charts compare the changes in the percentages of men and women married in 1996 and 2008. Overall, it is readily apparent that in both 1996 and 2008 women tended to get married younger compared to their male counterparts, with the most common marriages being between 25 and 34 years old. One noticeable change is that more members of both sexes got married later in life in 2008.
In terms of the three youngest groups, from 1996 to 2008, there was a decline in the percentage of women getting married under the age of 24 to less than an insignificant 0.5% for those under 19 and to 3% for 20-24 year-olds in 2008. No males married before 20 in both years and the figure for males aged 20 – 24 decreased nominally to about 1.7% in 2008. An unchanged proportion (approximately 11.5%) of young female adults got married when they were 25 – 29 years old, as opposed to a slight drop to 8% among their male counterparts in 2008.
With regard to the older age groups, there was a substantial rise in the proportion of 30-34-year-old married people in both genders, who accounted for 8% of females and 11% of males in 2008, compared with 7% and 9%, respectively in 1996. More males in the 35 – 39 and 40 – 44 age groups got married, with much more noticeable growth rates of 1% and 1.2% in turn to reach 9% and 6.2% in 2008, exceeding the growth of 0.2% among females.