Devastating Divide: Red States Dramatically Pull Ahead in Marriage and Kids—By Marrying Minors

Red states do pull ahead in marriage rates, but the fine print is rough. Thirty-four states still allow child marriage, and the South and West lead. Between 2000 and 2021, roughly 315,000 minors were legally married—86% of them girls wed to adult men. Four states don’t even set a minimum threshold of maturity. So yeah, those “family values” numbers look different when kids are part of the equation, and the full picture gets even messier from here.

When people talk about “family values” in red states, they rarely mention this part. Thirty-four states still permit child marriage. That’s not a typo. And the states with the highest rates? West Virginia and Texas, where roughly 7 out of every 1,000 teenagers aged 15 to 17 were married as of 2014. Southern and Western states dominate the leaderboard here—Oklahoma, Arkansas, Tennessee, North Carolina, Nevada, and California all post above-average numbers.

So when red states brag about higher marriage rates and more kids, maybe ask who exactly is getting married.

Between 2000 and 2021, approximately 315,000 minors were legally married in the United States. Let that number breathe for a second. About 96% of those kids were 16 or 17, but some were as young as 10. The youngest documented bride was a 10-year-old girl. Family values, apparently.

Here’s the legal scaffolding making this possible. Thirty-four states let 16- and 17-year-olds marry with parental permission. At least 36 states allow it with judicial consent. Four states—California, Mississippi, New Mexico, and Oklahoma—don’t even bother setting a minimum threshold. Nothing. No floor. Massachusetts and New Hampshire historically allowed girls as young as 12 and boys as young as 14 to marry with the right permissions.

Some states have tightened things up. Kentucky now requires judicial approval for 17-year-olds and caps the age gap at four years. Indiana did something similar. But parental consent remains the most common loophole across the country.

The gender breakdown is brutal. Approximately 86% of child marriages involve a minor girl marrying an adult man averaging about four years older. That’s not a partnership. That’s a power imbalance with a marriage license. Roughly 60,000 of these child marriages involved spousal age differences large enough to be classified as sex crimes. Some states even prohibit minors from legally divorcing or leaving their spouse, and domestic violence shelters often refuse to accept them.

Only 16 states have fully banned underage marriage. Delaware led the way in 2018. States like New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, New York, and Missouri followed.

Red and blue states alike have faced pushback from advocacy groups opposing restrictions. Which is a sentence that shouldn’t exist, but here we are.