~•{ Age of Marriage }•~

The bar graph shows the decline, over the past few decades, in the percentage of women aged 15-19 who are married in six selected Arab countries. The table gives us the age of first marriage for men and women in twelve Arab countries, plus Turkey and Iran.

The most dramatic feature of the bar chart concerns the UAE, where the percentage of 15-19 year old married women plummeted from 57% in 1975 to 8% in 1995. Other massive drops were in Libya, from 40% in 1973 to 1% in 1995 and Kuwait, from 38% in 1970 to 5% in 1996. Egypt, Tunisia and Palestine registered less dramatic falls. The age of first marriage, in the table, showed a range from mid- to late-20s for men and from low- to mid-20s for women.

The outstanding feature of the bar graph is Palestine because the fall was 3% in rate from 1967 to 2004. In the table, men and women didn’t get married before the age 20.5 in all countries.

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