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Which US states still allow marriage under 18 with judicial consent in 2025?
Executive Summary
As of mid‑2025, the provided source set consistently reports that a minority of U.S. jurisdictions have enacted total bans on marriage under 18, while a plurality of states continue to permit minors to marry under parental consent, judicial approval, emancipation, or pregnancy exceptions. The exact lists vary across the sources, but they converge on the conclusion that between roughly 34 and 37 states still allow some form of marriage under 18 with judicial or other exceptions, while 16–17 states have complete bans [1] [2].
1. The competing headlines: who claims what and why this matters
The analyses present two competing tallies: multiple pieces state that 16 states have enacted outright bans on child marriage by mid‑2025, leaving 34 states with exceptions that permit marriage under 18 [1] [2]. Other summaries frame the situation as 13–17 states having banned child marriage, with the remainder allowing under‑18 marriages via judicial or parental consent [3] [4]. The variation matters because policy counting depends on whether sources treat the District of Columbia and U.S. territories the same way, and whether they count statutes that effectively set 18 as a minimum but retain narrow exceptions. All sources emphasize that exceptions like pregnancy, emancipation, and judicial waivers are the main legal routes that keep child marriage lawful in many jurisdictions [1] [5].
2. Points of agreement among sources — core facts you can rely on
All analyses agree on a central fact: a nontrivial number of U.S. states retained statutory or de facto pathways for minors to marry in 2025, and a growing legislative movement seeks to eliminate these exceptions [1] [2] [5]. Several sources explicitly name California, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Mississippi as states with particularly permissive statutes that can result in marriages below 16 when all exemptions are applied, though individual tallies differ on whether these states have since tightened rules [1] [6]. The unanimous policy takeaway in the sources is that only a complete statutory ban — removing parental and judicial exceptions — fully prevents child marriage; piecemeal reforms often leave loopholes [4] [7].
3. Where the sources diverge — inconsistent lists and counting methods
The analyses diverge noticeably on which specific states still allow marriage under 18 and on the total count of permissive states. One set lists Alabama through Wyoming in a broad sweep of permissive states but excludes Michigan and others that reportedly passed bans [2]. Another older inventory lists a dozen states where “no minimum” existed as of 2019 but acknowledges that those figures may be out of date and not reflective of 2025 legislative changes [6]. These discrepancies reflect differing cut‑off dates, whether the analyst counts pending bills, and whether territories and emancipation provisions are treated as equivalent to judicial consent [3] [2]. The sources therefore cannot be combined into a single definitive list without reconciling methodology.
4. Which states get repeatedly named across the reporting?
Despite variation, certain states appear repeatedly in the provided set as allowing under‑18 marriages via judicial or other exception pathways: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming are named across at least one of the sources as permissive in 2025 [2] [5]. Other sources emphasize that some of these states had pending legislation to raise age limits or close loopholes, and that recent bans in states such as Oregon, Missouri, and others have shifted the arithmetic in the past two years [1] [2].
5. Legislative momentum and pending bills that could change the map
Several analyses highlight active legislative efforts in 2024–2025 aimed at ending marriages under 18 without exception; bills named across the sources include measures in Arizona, Illinois, Kansas, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, and others seeking to eliminate judicial‑consent pathways [2]. The sources also note the introduction of federal proposals such as the Child Marriage Prevention Bill in 2024, which had not passed as of early 2025, leaving states as the primary arena for change [3]. Advocacy groups and public‑interest researchers supply scorecards and statutory charts referenced by the sources to track rapid shifts; this ongoing activity explains why tallies differ and why a state list remains fluid [7].
6. Bottom line answer to the original question and what you should do next
Based on the provided reporting, the precise list of states that still allow marriage under 18 with judicial consent in 2025 cannot be stated as a single authoritative roster because sources disagree on counts and inclusion criteria; however, the consensus is clear that a majority of states retained some legal pathway for under‑18 marriage in mid‑2025, roughly 34–37 jurisdictions, while 16–17 had enacted total bans [1] [2] [5]. For a definitive, state‑by‑state ruling you should consult the most recent statutory chart and scorecards compiled by legal‑advocacy groups referenced in the sources, since these analyses document rapid legislative change and specify the exact statutory language that determines whether judicial consent remains a route to marriage in each state [7] [4].