Believe it or not: Child marriage prevalent among conservative Whites in the US

Around the world, about 12 million child marriages (or marriages of girls less than 18 years of age) occur every year. Child marriage is considered a hallmark of backward societies, but it is also prevalent in the world’s most advanced country, the United States, among ultra conservative whites.
According to Centerline Woman, in 2025, the United States is still grappling with child marriage, a practice many assume had long gone. While 16 States and Washington, D.C., have banned marriage under age 18 with no exceptions, the majority of American States (34) still allow minors to marry, though only with parental consent and judicial approval. And in a handful of States, there is no statutory minimum age at all for marriage.
Generally, Americans see child marriage as a “foreign” problem and the US government has vocally opposed child and forced marriage in other countries, even as these occur in America among Whites themselves.
Population Institute researcher Maniza Habib wrote in the Al Jazeera website that the myth of “American exceptionalism” is so strong that many Americans believe that child marriage is someone else’s problem and that it can’t happen in the US. “This has blocked constructive public discussions and effective legislation,” Habib points out.
State-Wise Position
Of course, there are progressive American States that have completely banned child marriages, regardless of parental or judicial consent. These States are, Delaware (which banned it in 2018), New Jersey (also in 2018), Pennsylvania and Minnesota (in 2020), Rhode Island and New York (in 2021), Massachusetts ( in 2022), Vermont and Connecticut (in 2023), Michigan, Washington, and Virginia ( in 2023–2024), New Hampshire, Maine, Oregon, and Missouri (in 2024–2025).
Four States—California, Mississippi, New Mexico, and Oklahoma—do not set a legal minimum marriage age. But in practice, they require parental consent and judicial approval.
Most of the remaining 30 States permit marriage at 16 or 17 with   parental consent alone. In 15 of these 30 States, including Alabama, Nebraska, and Wisconsin, child marriage is allowed with parental consent and judicial approval ( as in Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming).
Some States add further safeguards, such as limiting the age gap between the minor and her intended spouse,  or insisting on  counselling.
Currently, no State allows a 14-year-old to marry with only parental consent. In rare cases, a 14- or 15-year-old may marry, if both parents consent and a judge approves.
Progress in Controlling Child Marriage
Undoubtedly, American States are moving towards regulating child marriage. In 2023, Michigan banned it. Wyoming and West Virginia raised the minimum to 16. In 2024, Washington and Virginia enacted a full ban on child marriage. In 2025, Maine, Oregon, and Missouri eliminated child marriage entirely.
Even in those states where marriage under 18 remains legal, lawmakers are increasingly proposing bills to either set higher age minimums or to close loopholes.
The Child Marriage Prevention Act of 2024 was introduced in Congress to create federal safeguards. While the Act would not override State marriage laws entirely, it aimed to harmonise protections and encourage uniform bans.
Social Consequences
Research shows that marrying before 18 is linked to a higher rate of dropping out of school, of poverty and financial instability, domestic violence and poor physical and mental health outcomes.
Girls who marry before they turn 18 are about 50% more likely to drop out of high school and four times less likely to finish college.  
Early teen marriage and dropping out of high school are also associated with higher poverty rates later in life. A woman in the US who marries before they turn 18 is about 31% more likely to live in poverty when they get older, compared to women who delay marriage, according to study published in 2010
Therefore, for many reformists, ending child marriage is a human rights issue, to be addressed as a priority.
No Constitutional Safeguard
Strangely, the US still does not have an explicit constitutional guarantee of gender equality. The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), passed by Congress in 1972, has never been fully ratified and enshrined in the Constitution.
This means that when women’s rights are challenged, protections often rely on patchwork State laws or judicial interpretations rather than a clear, enforceable federal constitutional standard. When the legal system lacks a constitutional mandate to treat gender equality as a fundamental right, the result is gender imbalance and gender injustice adversely affecting females.
Child Brides Outnumber Child Grooms
There is also a disturbing gender imbalance in child marriages. Girls are far more likely to be wed as children than boys. 86% of minors who wed between 2000 and 2018 were girls, according to  www.unchainedatlast.org.
Writing in The 19 th., Mariel Padilla says that nearly 300,000 minors — the vast majority of them girls — were legally married in the United States between 2000 and 2018, the year State Congresses began taking action. Another disturbing statistic is that in the 60,000 child marriages since 2000, the age difference between the couple was big enough to be considered a sex crime.
The all-US number of children married has decreased almost every year since 2000. The majority of States have introduced and debated legislation related to child marriage, though most of the bills include exceptions with parental or judicial consent or have a minimum marrying age that is younger than 18.
Though there has been progress,  the US is unlikely to reach zero tolerance of child marriages any time soon, Padilla says.
Rooted in Conservatism and Religiosity
According to Elizabeth Alice Clement, a US women’s historian at the University of Utah, support for child marriage among whites tends to be rooted in conservative or religious beliefs.
States with the most child marriages per capita are Nevada, Idaho, Arkansas, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Wyoming, Utah, Alabama, West Virginia and Mississippi.
Although the United States joined a United Nations’ plan in 2016 to end child marriages by 2030, lawmakers in the US continue to debate the minimum marriage age in states around the US, Clement points out.
Those arguing in favour of permitting children to marry say that establishing any restrictions will interfere with parental rights or religious liberty. In Wyoming, Republican lawmakers circulated a letter to their constituents that argued that preventing child marriage could discourage teen age parents from being able to raise their children under one roof.
The lawmakers also said that the age of marriage should align with the age in which children become physically capable of having their own children.
In Tennessee, last year, Republicans sought to eliminate any limits on marriage age. And in Missouri, a Republican lawmaker defended child marriage, supporting parents’ right to choose whom their children marry and when.
Historical Evolution
The minimum marriage age has fluctuated over the centuries. In colonial America it was 12 for girls and 14 for boys — a reflection of English law at the time. In the early years, parents wanted to exercise greater control over when and who their children married. At   that time, it was important for keeping estates and property under family control. It ensured that one’s girls were going to be marrying into a family where they would be supported as per family expectations.
But at the end of the 19th century and into the 20th century, researchers began to better understand adolescent development and recognised that teenagers may be ill-prepared to assume the familial and financial responsibilities associated with marriage.
In 1970, the Uniform Marriage and Divorce Act, a model legislation that states could adopt to standardise what marriage and divorce means, was created. According to the act, the presumptive age of consent is 18, but 16- and 17-year-olds would still be allowed to wed with parental or judicial permission.
However, though the all-US number of children married has decreased almost every year since 2000, the US is unlikely to reach zero tolerance of child marriages any time soon.