Fact sheet and brief

Child Marriage In The United States: A Serious Problem With a Simple First-Step Solution

This brief highlights the consequences of child marriage in the United States, and advocates for the minimum age of marriage to be changed to 18 without exceptions.

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This brief highlights a number of facts about child marriage in the United States, including:

that prevalence of child marriage is 8.9%

that laws governing the rights of children under the age of 18 are often contradictory, as they allow girls to marry before age 18 while they are still legal minors, and unable to access services for adults, or exercise adult rights

that marriages that take place before a girl is aged 18 end in divorce in 70/80% of cases

that child marriage is associated with a range of mental and physical health consequences in the United States

The brief concludes that raising the minimum age of marriage without exceptions is the appropriate solution.

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