Which U.S. states have no statutory minimum marriage age and what statutes allow judicial or parental waivers?
Executive summary
Four prominent advocacy reports and databases disagree on the exact set of states that currently lack a statutory minimum marriage age because states use different combinations of explicit minimums, parental-consent carve-outs, and judicial-waiver procedures; some sources identify a small handful of states with no minimum (for example CA, MS, NM, OK are named by MOST Policy) while others (Equality Now, World Population Review) give larger or smaller counts depending on whether they count clerks’ discretion, pregnancy exceptions, or recent reforms [1] [2] [3] [4]. The underlying legal mechanics that allow minors to marry where 18 is nominally the “statutory minimum” are two recurring statutory devices: parental consent and judicial (or clerk-level) waiver/authorization — and the exact scope of those devices varies markedly by state and by the source reporting on them [5] [1].
1. The core question deconstructed: what “no statutory minimum” actually means
“No statutory minimum” can mean at least three distinct things in state law: a statute that literally sets no lower age limit and instead defers to parental consent or judicial approval; a statute that sets an age but then contains exemptions (pregnancy, emancipation) that effectively allow younger marriages; or a statutory scheme that gives local clerks or judges discretionary power to waive statutory minimums — and different datasets interpret those situations differently, which is why counts diverge across sources [5] [4].
2. States most commonly flagged as having no minimum or open-ended parental exceptions
A recurrent set of states appears across reporting as having no explicit minimum when parental consent is available: California and Mississippi are named repeatedly (California explicitly “no minimum with parental consent” in LawInfo and MOST Policy highlights CA and MS in its list), and the MOST Policy Initiative also lists New Mexico and Oklahoma as allowing marriage of children under the marriage age with parental consent and no set minimum [6] [1]. World Population Review’s compilation expands that list to include Delaware, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Virginia as having no parental-consent minimums, but that list conflicts with other sources and reflects a broader methodology that counts clerk-level and consent-based exceptions [3].
3. Judicial waivers and clerk discretion: the second major pathway
Many states permit a judge (or in some states a court clerk) to authorize a marriage that would otherwise be barred, often subject to criteria such as proof of maturity, pregnancy, emancipation, or best-interest findings; Tahirih’s statutory compilation warns that these judicial processes range from substantive hearings to perfunctory paperwork and that in 14 states clerks — not judges — can issue licenses for minors, which can create loopholes for very young marriages [5]. Legal guides and state-by-state summaries (FindLaw, LawInfo) describe frequent combinations: parental consent plus judicial approval, judicial approval alone for certain ages, or additional limits such as maximum age gaps or proof of emancipation [7] [6].
4. Where reporting conflicts and why — methodological and temporal gaps
Equality Now’s advocacy tally says only four states have no minimum as of its 2025 piece, while World Population Review and other compilations show as many as a dozen when counting all exemptions and clerk discretion; these discrepancies reflect different cut‑offs, the rapid pace of state reforms since 2019, and divergent definitions (literal statutory floor vs. practical floor after exceptions) — sources themselves note prior changes (e.g., Maine, Maryland, Louisiana reforms) and warn that statutory text and practice can differ sharply [2] [8] [4].
5. What can be stated with confidence and what remains uncertain
It is certain that parental consent and judicial or clerk waivers are the two primary statutory mechanisms that enable marriage below 18 in many states, and that a subset of states (regularly including California and Mississippi in major compilations) have been identified as lacking a clear lower bound when parental consent is available [1] [6]. What cannot be resolved from the provided reporting alone is a single, authoritative current list of every state that today has literally no statutory minimum, because authors use different definitions and the laws have been changing state-by-state; a definitive answer would require checking each state’s current statutory text and recent amendments [5] [2].