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I found a chart here of median age at first marriage by year from 1890 to 2010. It looks like it dips to a low during the 60s then has an upward trend until 2010.enter image description here

As an answer, I'm looking for any previous economic research about the causes of this trend. I'm also looking for data and theories that might shed light to this trend.

And if anyone can give a summary of proposed causes of this trend, I'd also appreciate that.

Background/side note There are other demographic trends coming from that pivotal time too, like more women in the work force, more women in college. I would have thought this kind of integration would make the marriage market more efficient and lower/hold constant that age. I guess there are changing preferences and less demand for marriage until later ages nowadays? People fall in love later? Or school and work are bad places to find a partner? Those are just some of my thoughts I'd like to get more info on.

extra note I disagree with people who don't include marriage as an acceptable topic for economics. But they might be kind of right. Marriage is a topic for sociology. To clear this up though, I'm just looking for the information that the discipline of economics can provide. So no, this isn't a sociology question, even though the two overlap. See comments below. Feel free to edit this question if it needs further clarification or narrowing, etc.

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    $\begingroup$ I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because as it stands, it's a sociology question, not an economics question. $\endgroup$
    – 410 gone
    Apr 10, 2016 at 3:30
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    $\begingroup$ @EnergyNumbers The Effect of Age at First Marriage on Career Development and Wages $\endgroup$
    – Giskard
    Apr 10, 2016 at 6:40
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    $\begingroup$ I think this question is clearly on topic here. This is a request for economic literature that uses the tools of economics to understand marriage decisions. There is a large such literature dating back, at least, to Gary Becker's 1974 "A Theory of Marriage" in the Journal of Political Economy (a part of the body of work on non-market behaviour that won him the Nobel prize in economics). The idea that "it's not economics unless there's a price" has been out of fashion for some time. $\endgroup$
    – Ubiquitous
    Apr 10, 2016 at 7:15
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    $\begingroup$ Putting questions on hold isn't shutting them down. It's simply a way of preventing answers being posted to a question that needs to be edited. We do that to save the time and effort of the answerers: editing a question can significantly change how people interpret a question, making earlier answers irrelevant. $\endgroup$
    – 410 gone
    Apr 10, 2016 at 8:37
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    $\begingroup$ @EnergyNumbers Could you, next time that happens, just ask some clarification first, like make the necessary assumptions so that it can be understood as economics question, then ask if you're interpretation is right? Then the editing would be smoother, I would know what's unclear, I wouldn't feel shut down, etc. $\endgroup$
    – user4207
    Apr 10, 2016 at 19:21

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