Minimum marriage age b state
Executive summary
Most U.S. jurisdictions set adulthood at 18 for marriage, but the statutory floor varies: the general marriage age without exceptions is 18 in most states, with Nebraska at 19 and Mississippi at 21, while many states allow minors to wed with parental or judicial approval and a handful of states have been reported to lack any statutory minimum age at all (sources disagree on the exact number) [1] [2] [3] [4]. The practical minimum marriage age “by state” therefore requires looking at both the baseline age and the exceptions—pregnancy, parental consent, and judicial waivers—that still permit child marriages across much of the country [5] [6].
1. The baseline: most states set 18 as the general marriage age
Across state codes the default rule today is that a person may not marry without authorization until they reach 18 years old, a change from historical common law; two commonly cited exceptions to that baseline are Nebraska (general age 19) and Mississippi (general age 21) according to compilations of state laws and academic summaries [1] [2]. These “general” ages are the legal age without parental or judicial exception and are the clearest metric for comparing states when exceptions are stripped away [1].
2. The loopholes that produce lower effective minimums
Most states that set an 18‑year baseline retain exception paths—parental consent, judicial approval, or pregnancy provisions—that allow younger people to marry; some jurisdictions historically allowed marriage as young as 15, 14, or even younger when those exceptions were applied [6] [5]. Legal guides and advocacy groups document that a large number of states still permit marriage of minors under specific conditions, and several states have allowed marriages without any legislated minimum so that common law or statutory waivers determine the floor [3] [5] [7].
3. States reported to have no minimum age: disagreement in the record
Multiple reporting and advocacy sources flag that a small number of states “do not require any minimum age,” but they disagree on the exact count—reports cite four states, others seven—reflecting different cutoffs, updates, and whether sources count jurisdictions that rely on common law minima rather than a statutory age [4] [8] [9]. This inconsistency matters: some compilations count jurisdictions where no statutory minimum exists (leaving common law or judicial discretion to set a floor), while others count only states that expressly allow marriage at any age via statute; readers should treat any single number as provisional because state law reforms have been frequent [4] [10].
4. Why the details matter: statutory rape defenses and social impact
The interplay between marriage laws and age‑of‑consent or statutory‑rape statutes has policy consequences: where marriage can be used as a defense to sex‑offense charges or to evade criminal liability, advocates and researchers argue it creates perverse incentives and harms minors, and empirical studies and policy briefs link child marriage to negative health, economic, and social outcomes [2] [11]. National organizations—including Tahirih Justice Center, Equality Now, and advocacy groups like Unchained at Last—have documented how exceptions have allowed thousands of U.S. child marriages and are pushing state floors of 18 with no exceptions [5] [9] [11].
5. The current practical guidance and limits of reporting
Because statutes are changing rapidly and sources use different methods (statutory baseline vs. effective floor with exceptions), any definitive “by‑state” list must be checked against current state codes or the recent compilations by legal nonprofits and state legislative texts; summaries from FindLaw, law‑center compilations, and advocacy charts are useful starting points but sometimes conflict on counts like “how many states have no minimum” [3] [10] [8]. This reporting synthesizes widely cited sources: the consistent takeaway is that while the legal baseline in most states is 18, exceptions and a small group of states without statutory minima mean child marriage remains legally possible in many jurisdictions—an outcome advocates are actively working to end [1] [6] [11].