Age at First Marriage in Vietnam: Trends and Determinants

Lung Vu, Tulane University

Age at first marriage has not been the subject of systematic research in many changing societies. In Vietnam, the evidence is even scarcer. Our study used national representative sample of 16,381 ever-married women interviewed in 1997, 2002 and 2005 to describe trends and examine factors affecting age at first marriage in Vietnam. We found an increasing trend in age at first marriage. The increase was modest (mean age at first marriage rose just 0.4 year; from 20.6 in 1997 to 21.0 in 2005), but significant over time after controlling for other socioeconomic variables. Education, type of residence, wealth, age, region, and ethnicity were strongly related to age at first marriage. Our study also revealed that there was significant proportion of women who got married during adolescent especially among rural; minority; and less educated women.