Single In Massachusetts? Data Says You’re not Alone

According to data, people in Massachusetts and New England are getting married much later in life compared to the rest of the country.

Does that surprise anyone though? I grew up in Massachusetts. It seemed like none of my friends who stayed in MA ever got married under the age of 30. On the other hand, when I lived in Tennessee for almost ten years it seemed like all of the women were getting married in their early 20's! It was such a cultural difference. So, is there a reason for this?

Overflow Data sourced data from the 2022 American Community Survey. They tracked marriages within one year for those aged 15 to 54. And they determined that the age of women getting married really varied based on the state where they lived. States in the North seemed to have women who got married mater in life. Women in the Southern states got married significantly earlier.

It's not surprising, but data says that the age of New England women getting married happen much later in life compared to the rest of the country. Rhode Island is #3 on the list of all 50 states, and they also lead the New England region. The average age of a woman to get married in RI is 30.5 years old.

Right behind Rhode Island at #4 overall is Massachusetts. Massachusetts women on average get married at the age of 30.4. Another another New England state in the top 5 is Connecticut. The average age for women in CT is 30.1 years old.

The rest of the New England states are pretty high too. Vermont's average age is 29.4, Maine is 28.9 and New Hampshire is 28.1.

There are a new theories, but these are the most popular ones. In a nutshell, the increase in the number of women's places in both education and work environment have led to a delay in marriage. Women are putting their careers first and not putting as much emphasis on getting married, or starting a family until they are financially stable enough to do so.

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These famous people have famously married their own cousins.

When it comes to the topic of marrying or dating your own cousin, people say, "It's more common than you think!" That was proven today when we took calls on Country 102.5 about the topic. Can you believe that people actually called in to tell us stories of their friends and family members dating their own cousins?

In world history, there's proof that royal families would marry members of their own family to keep all of the wealth and power in the same place. Maybe that's why these famous people married their cousins as well!

Do you think your cousin is hot and want to marry them? Well I have some news for you. In the United States, second cousins are legally allowed to marry in every state. Yehaw, lucky you! However, marriage between first cousins is legal in only about a handful of the American states. Ready for the list?

Alabama, California, Colorado, Connecticut, the District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, New Mexico, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and Vermont. So as you can see, there are four New England states that allow residents to marry their first cousins. Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut and Vermont. I'm not sure why you would want to, but the option is there in case you feel the urge.

New Hampshire and Maine, that mean's you cannot marry your first cousin! Well, you can fall in love with them, but legally speaking, you can't ask for their hand in marriage, or make it official in a court house.

According to Wikipedia, about 10% of marriages in the world are between first and second cousins. If you do the math, there's 8,118,835,999 people alive globally. 10% of that population would be over 811 million people worldwide who are married to their cousin. Weird, right?

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Rudy Giuliani and Regina S. Peruggi married in October of 1968. They divorced in 1982 and the next year he took on the role of  United States attorney for the Southern District of New York. Do you think that his political team told him it wasn't a good look to be married to your second cousin? 

Former President, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, met his future wife at a family function when she was 2 years old and he was 4 years old. Her name was Elenore and over the years they saw each other frequently. In 1903, the then 22-year old, asked Elenore to marry him. They married in March of 1905 with a bit of familial pushback. They were fifth cousins after all.

Jerry Lee Lewis famously married Gale Lewis Williams in 1957. He was a famous 22-year-old rock n' roll piano player and singer. She was notoriously only 13 years old she she married Jerry Lee. They were first cousins once removed.

This one really gets me, so follow along . Albert Einstein married Elsa Einstein. Their mothers were sisters, thus making them maternal first cousins. But here's the kicker...the couple were also paternal second cousins. Their FATHERS were first cousins. Wow. Let that sink in.

It cringes me to even put Sadam Hussein on this list of "famous people." But nonetheless, he had multiple wives. His first wife, however, was his first cousin Sajida Talfah. They had five children together.

This one is a bit of a stretch. Now that I think of it, is that why they call it 6 degrees of separation? If you don't know what I mean, there's an assumption that anyone involved in the Hollywood film industry can be linked through their film roles to actor Kevin Bacon within six steps. The game's name is a reference to "six degrees of separation", a concept that posits that any two people on Earth are six or fewer acquaintance links apart.

Kevin Bacon and his wife, Kyra Sedgwick are actually 9th cousins.