United States

There is no publicly available government data on child marriage in the United States.

A 2018 study found that between 2000 and 2015 there were over 200,000 minors married in the United States, of which 87% were girls and 13% were boys.

US-based Girls Not Brides member Unchained at Last revealed that over 300,000 children had been married in the United States between 2000 and 2018, mostly girls marrying adult men. Within those years, the highest rates of child marriage were found in Texas (41,774), California (23,588), Nevada (17,403), Florida (17,274), North Carolina (12,637) and Georgia (10,123).

The highest rates of child marriage in the United States are found in Texas, Florida, Kentucky, North Carolina and Alabama.

The lowest rates of child marriage are found in Nebraska, Delaware, North Dakota and South Dakota.

In Alabama, between 2000 and 2018, there were 9,166 child marriages. Alabama has the ninth-highest number of total child marriages in the country and the eighth-highest number of child marriages per capita.

California has the second highest number of child marriages in the country – between 2000 and 2018, there were 23,588 recorded cases of child marriage.

Between 2010 and 2014, in Massachusetts, there were 200 child marriages of which 85% were girls married to older men. The Department of Public Health found that in Massachusetts between 2000 and 2016 there were 1,246 child marriages, the majority of which took place in Springfield and Worcester.

In Missouri, between 2000 and 2018, there were over 8,000 child marriages, of which 85% were girls.

Child marriage is driven by gender inequality and the belief that women and girls are somehow inferior to men and boys.

There is limited information on child marriage in the United States, but available evidence suggest that it is exacerbated by:

● Ethnicity: A 2018 study found that child marriage prevalence rates were higher among children with American Indian and Chinese descent. White non-Hispanic boys were the least likely to be married as children.

● Migration: According to the same 2018 study immigrant children were more likely than U.S.-born children to have been married. The study found that prevalence among children from Mexico, and Central America and the Middle East countries was two to four times that of children born in the United States. In the majority of cases, children from these countries were married after they arrived in the United States.

● Weak legal frameworks: There is anecdotal evidence of girls being married to perpetrators of sexual violence so the men can avoid being prosecuted.

The United States has committed to ending child, early and forced marriage by 2030 in line with target 5.3 of the Sustainable Development Goals. The government has not provided an update on progress towards this target in any High Level Political Forum to date.

The United States co-sponsored the following Human Rights Council resolutions: the 2013 resolution on child, early and forced marriage, the 2015 resolution to end child, early and forced marriage, recognising that it is a violation of human rights, the 2017 Human Rights Council resolution recognising the need to address child, early and forced marriage in humanitarian contexts, the 2021 resolution on child, early and forced marriage in times of crisis, including the COVID-19 pandemic, and the 2023 resolution on ending and preventing forced marriage. In 2014, the United States signed a joint statement at the Human Rights Council calling for a resolution on child marriage.

The United States co-sponsored the 2013, 2014, 2016 and 2022 UN General Assembly resolutions on child, early and forced marriage.

The United States signed, but is one of few countries not yet to have ratified, the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1995, which the Committee on the Rights of the Child has interpreted to recommend the establishment of a minimum age of marriage of 18. In 1980 the United States signed, but has not yet ratified, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) in 1981, which obligates states to ensure free and full consent to marriage.

The United States, as a member of the Organization of American States (OAS), is bound to the Inter American System of Human Rights, which recognises the right of men and women of marriageable age to marry and calls on governments to strengthen the response to address gender-based violence and discrimination, including early, forced and child marriage and unions, from a perspective that respected evolving capacities and progressive autonomy.

In 2021, the Biden-Harris administration released the first-ever United States Government National Strategy on Gender Equality and Equality. This strategy identifies ten interconnected priorities:

Economic security

Gender-based violence

Health

Education

Justice and immigration

Human rights and equality under the law

Security and humanitarian relief

Climate change

Science and technology

Democracy, participation and leadership

USAID is a project partner to tackle child marriage in:

Bangladesh: Alongside the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs, USAID is supporting Bangladesh’s 10-year National Plan of Action to End Child Marriage 2018-2030.

Mozambique: USAID has been a partner since July 2020 for the Preventing Child Marriage in Cabo Delgado project and has donated $5.1 million USD.

As a leading donor for international development, the United States can play an important role in the global movement to end child marriage. However, in 2017, President Donald Trump expanded the so-called global gag rule, which prohibits foreign non-governmental organisations (NGOs) who receive U.S. global health assistance from providing legal abortion services or referrals, and also barring advocacy for abortion law reform. This will have a detrimental impact on international efforts to advance women’s and girls’ health and rights, and consequently on addressing child marriage globally.

In 2019, at the Nairobi Summit on ICPD25, the United States recalled its resource commitment to prevent child, early, and forced marriage (CEFM), as well as its programmatic commitment to advancing equality for women and girls through the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, which works to address many of the factors that make girls and young women particularly vulnerable to HIV, including gender-based violence.

In March 2016, the U.S. State Department adopted the Global Strategy To Empower Adolescent Girls, which includes specific provisions on ending child marriage and addressing the needs of married girls globally thanks to the ongoing advocacy of Girls Not Brides USA.

This meets the requirement of the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2013 that the U.S. Secretary of State must “establish and implement a multi-year, multi-sectoral strategy to end child marriage.”

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) lists some developmental assistance programmes which address child marriage in order to promote gender equality and women’s empowerment.

The USAID Vision for Action on Ending Child Marriage and Meeting the Needs of Married Children, developed in 2012, was a strong step forward in addressing the root causes of this harmful practice. USAID’s Resource Guide outlines how the government and other countries can address child, early and forced marriage through multi-sectoral and sector-specific approaches.

The USAID Girls’ Education initiative addresses barriers to education and responds to the needs of both girls and boys by reducing gender-based violence against children and mitigating its harmful effects.

In the U.S. federal system, state legislatures set the minimum age of marriage for each state. The minimum age in most states is 18, but exceptions in nearly every U.S. state allow those younger than 18 to marry, and laws in many states do not specify any minimum age for marriage. In states that have no formal/legislated minimum age, the common law minimum age holds force (12 years for girls, 14 for boys).

The consent of a parent or guardian is among the most common exceptions that allow children under 18 to be married, while judicial approval is often needed for a child under age 16 to be married. Several states also have specific exceptions for cases involving pregnancy.

In 2023, in Connecticut, lawmakers introduced HB6569 to end all marriages before the age of 18 years. Similarly, in Texas, HB1590 is pending in the house of Juvenile Justice and Family Issues Committee.

On July 28, 2022, Massachusetts became the seventh state to ban child marriage. This came after a new law was passed which prohibits child marriage for any person below the age of 18 years, without exceptions.

In Maryland, in 2022, a new law went into effect that raised the legal minimum age of marriage from 15 years to 17 years. Girls and boys from the age of 17 years are able to marry if they have the consent of one parent/guardian.

In 2021, in North Carolina, the legal minimum age of marriage was raised to 16 years, with parental/guardian consent. The law added an age gap restriction, whereby a person marrying a 16- or 17-year-old can only have a 4-year maximum age gap.

In 2021, Rhode Island became the fifth state to ban child marriage. The new law raised the legal minimum age of marriage to 18 years, without exceptions.

Despite the passing of HB406 in Utah, in 2021, the legal minimum age of marriage is still 16. However, additional procedural safeguards have been implemented such as ensuring that the marriage is entered into voluntarily, is in the minor’s best interest, that both parties to the marriage attend premarital counselling, and a maximum age difference of no more than 7 years.

In May 2018, Delaware’s governor signed a bill prohibiting all marriages before the age of 18, becoming the first US state to prohibit all forms of child marriage. New Jersey followed in June 2018, passing legislation to raise the legal age to 18.

Two U.S. territories have also eliminated child marriage: American Samoa and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Girls Not Brides members are building coalitions in multiple states to address the legal loopholes that allow for the marriage of minors through parental or judicial consent.