The bar charts illustrate the age distribution of males and females when they got married in 1996 and 2008.
Overall, in both years, women settled down earlier than men, with those aged 25-29 accounting for the highest percentage. Whereas, men got married later in life when they were 30 and above.
Looking first at the chart in 1996, women started to wed from the age of 16, and the most significant disparity could be oberved in the 20-24 age group, in which the figure for women trippled that of men (6% versus 2%). Regarding 25-29 age cohort, the proporiton of females getting married reached a peak of approximately 12%, which was greatly higher than 9% of males, despite being the highest point for males. However, from the age of 30, the numbers of men entering marriage consistently exceeded than women’s. The most noticeable disparity was seen in the 40-44 age bracket, with nearly 6% of males getting married, which was three times higher than the figure for females.
Regarding the chart in 2008, in the three youngest age brackets, the figures for women successively surpassed that of men. Specifically, the proportion of women aged 25-29 was 12%, which was higher than men’s by four percentage points. In addition, there were more men settled down in the older age groups compared to women. The most significant difference could be observed in the 35-39 age cohort, where the number of males increased rapidily to 12% after 12 years, which was six times higher than the figure for females.
