Child Marriage Laws by State
New York has the highest Minimum Legal Marriage Age (18 years), followed by Pennsylvania (18 years) and Michigan (18 years). Hawaii has the lowest (15 years).
Minimum Legal Marriage Age
Darker means higher. Click a place to highlight it.
All 47 ranked
Highest first.
Distribution Median and middle halfThe median is the middle value: half of places are above it, half below. The middle half is the range holding the central 50% of places.More in the glossary →
Each dot is one state; the lines mark the median and the middle half.
Data
Click a column to sort, a row to highlight that place on the charts.
| # | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  New York | 18 years | — |
| 1 |  Pennsylvania | 18 years | — |
| 1 |  Michigan | 18 years | — |
| 1 |  New Jersey | 18 years | — |
| 1 |  Virginia | 18 years | — |
| 1 |  Washington | 18 years | — |
| 1 |  Massachusetts | 18 years | — |
| 1 |  Missouri | 18 years | — |
| 1 |  Minnesota | 18 years | — |
| 1 |  Oregon | 18 years | — |
| 1 |  Connecticut | 18 years | — |
| 1 |  New Hampshire | 18 years | — |
| 1 |  Maine | 18 years | — |
| 1 |  Rhode Island | 18 years | — |
| 1 |  Delaware | 18 years | — |
| 1 |  District of Columbia | 18 years | — |
| 1 |  Vermont | 18 years | — |
| 18 |  Florida | 17 years | — |
| 18 |  Ohio | 17 years | — |
| 18 |  Georgia | 17 years | — |
| 18 |  Tennessee | 17 years | — |
| 18 |  Maryland | 17 years | — |
| 18 |  Kentucky | 17 years | — |
| 18 |  Nevada | 17 years | — |
| 18 |  Nebraska | 17 years | — |
| 26 |  Texas | 16 years | — |
| 26 |  Illinois | 16 years | — |
| 26 |  North Carolina | 16 years | — |
| 26 |  Arizona | 16 years | — |
| 26 |  Indiana | 16 years | — |
| 26 |  Colorado | 16 years | — |
| 26 |  Wisconsin | 16 years | — |
| 26 |  South Carolina | 16 years | — |
| 26 |  Alabama | 16 years | — |
| 26 |  Louisiana | 16 years | — |
| 26 |  Utah | 16 years | — |
| 26 |  Iowa | 16 years | — |
| 26 |  Arkansas | 16 years | — |
| 26 |  Idaho | 16 years | — |
| 26 |  West Virginia | 16 years | — |
| 26 |  Montana | 16 years | — |
| 26 |  South Dakota | 16 years | — |
| 26 |  North Dakota | 16 years | — |
| 26 |  Alaska | 16 years | — |
| 26 |  Wyoming | 16 years | — |
| 46 |  Kansas | 15 years | — |
| 46 |  Hawaii | 15 years | — |
| — |  California | — | No state age limit. |
| — |  Oklahoma | — | No state age limit. |
| — |  Mississippi | — | No state age limit. |
| — |  New Mexico | — | No state age limit. |
What correlates with Minimum Legal Marriage Age?
Pearson r against 2,085 other state metrics sharing at least 29 states. Ranks are read by standing: a better rank counts as higher, whether rank 1 is the best place on a list or the worst. Correlation is not causation.
Higher together
Places that have a higher Minimum Legal Marriage Age tend to score higher on these (or rank better)
Opposite directions
Places that have a higher Minimum Legal Marriage Age tend to score lower on these (or rank worse)
Quick answers
- Which state has the highest Minimum Legal Marriage Age?
- New York has the highest Minimum Legal Marriage Age, at 18 years, followed by Pennsylvania (18 years) and Michigan (18 years).
- Which state has the lowest Minimum Legal Marriage Age?
- Hawaii has the lowest Minimum Legal Marriage Age, at 15 years.
- What is the median Minimum Legal Marriage Age across US states?
- The median is 17 years across the 47 US states with data.
- Where does this child marriage laws by state data come from?
- Rankodex compiles it from World Population Review and the primary sources it cites: About Child Marriage in the US - Unchained at Last.