MATRIMONIAL STATISTICS.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 336, 24 October 1908, Page 11

MATRIMONIAL STATISTICS.

. According■ to, the latest- English, statistics . on the, subject), for every 100 persons who were married thirty years 'ago there, 'aro now only 91, and, taking. only those above the ago of fifteen who aro unmarried or widowed, 'the 100 of thirty years ago becomes 81 to-day. Although'these'figures ap- : ply .to England, as a.whole,' the rate of decrease'differs greatly in different localities, and the mere fact of living in or moving to ' certain : districts. may largely increaso or reduce a woman's chance-of., marriage. That-people.marry older nowadays all over the English-speaking world is well known, and the number of women who marry after thirty is increasing, while tho number under tfronty-one grows fewer and fewer. The average age of a bride of to-day is estimated to bo 26i years, while tho bridegroom is 28J years. In thirty years,' tho number of brides under 'twenty-one has' I "decreased in every 1000 marriages "from 217 to 152. _Of course, , taking the ago point of view, most Women marry between tho ages of 20' and 30, but the years that lie- boyond aro not .to bo despised. Nor is the chance of tho.widow a poor'one, especially as sho grows nearer to forty. ' Last year in England 2780 spinsters between 40 and 45 married, as against 2514 widows, but after that the widows had it' all their own way, for between. 45 and 50 1257 widows married, "as"against oiily's6o spinsters. ' And this advantage is kept up to, the very last', for of tho brides of 75 years of ago 13' were widows, and only ono a .spinster.