When it comes to reaching the major life milestones of getting married and becoming a parent, up to a half of Americans think there is no one ideal age at which they should be achieved.
But those who do think there’s a right time say the sweet spot for both marrying and having a first child is around the age of 26 or 27.
That’s according to the results of a Pew Research Center nationally representative survey of 3,600 U.S. adults.
On average, consensus on the best age to get married was 26.5, with around a quarter (23%) saying it should be between 25 and 29 and one in 10 saying it’s between 20 and 24 or 30 and 34. Still, about half of those surveyed said there is no best age to get married.
That tracks with the reality on the ground, as young adults in the U.S. are reaching key milestones later than in the past, according to a previous Pew report, from 2023. For example, it found, only 22% of 25-year-olds were married in 2021, compared with 63% in 1980. Further, a record 25% of 40-year-olds in the U.S. had never been married as of 2021.
The same pattern held when it came to having children: Just 17% of 25-year-olds in 2021 had a child, compared with 39% in 1980. Further, many adults in the U.S. do not have children, and a 2024 Pew survey found that almost half of adults under 50 who don’t already have kids think it’s unlikely they ever will.
To have children, respondents to the latest survey believe the average best age is 27.3—which is just about the average age (27.4) that an American woman gives birth for the first time, according to federal data.
But four in 10 say there is no best age to have a first child, and the next-largest share (28%) say the best age is between 25 and 29. Very few say it is ideal to have a first child before age 20 or at 35 or older.
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The findings are on par with the results of another Pew milestones survey, also released this week, of over 23,000 adults in 18 countries, including Argentina, Bangladesh, Ghana, Indonesia, Mexico, Peru, and Turkey. It found on average across the countries that people believed it was best to both get married and have a first child at around 26 years old—but ranging from 21.2 in Bangladesh to 28.9 in Argentina. Interestingly, in Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Peru, South Africa and Tunisia, roughly 10% of adults or more say the ideal age for marriage is 35 or older.
In the U.S., opinions on the ideal ages for each milestone differ based on political party, age, income, and whether or not religion is important.
Democrats and those who lean Democratic generally say higher ages for marriage and children, compared with Republicans and Republican leaners. And while adults under 30 recommend getting married and having kids later in life than those ages 65 and older do, there was no difference in the ideal ages given for marriage between men and women. When it comes to having kids, women think it’s best to do so at a slightly younger age (27) than men think (27.6).
High-end earners, meanwhile, say it’s best to get married and have a child later in life than lower-income respondents believe—27 vs. 26.2 for marriage and 28.7 vs. 26.2 for having kids. And those in the U.S. who place a high value on religion say it’s best to marry and have a child at a younger age compared with those not concerned with religion—25.7 vs. 27.1 for marriage and 26.4 vs. 28 for becoming a parent.
