Professor's 'Goldilocks Theory' Pinpoints The Ideal Age To Marry

When you find someone you truly love, it's hard not to picture where life with them is going to lead. Of course, whether you'll marry them or raise children together depends on how you view either of those milestones. Still, even if you've decided not to do either, it can still be interesting to think about what that would be like.

Sadly, with the way our society can work out, it can sometimes be hard to get a break from family and friends asking you those two big questions over and over again. Yet, the badgering can lead to a larger question: When is the right time to get married?

Of course, the correct answer is probably closer to "when it feels right" than any specific age. Still, a sociologist at the University if Utah seems very confident in his more specific answer, which some are calling the "Goldilocks theory."

COMMENT and tell us whether you agree there is an "ideal age" for marriage.

The sociologist is Nicholas Wolfinger and his theory is a surprising one.

Since the 1990s, it's been understood that the longer you wait, the healthier your marriage will end up. Yet, after researching data from the National Survey of Family Growth, Wolfinger has decided it's not that simple.

For him, there's a specific age range with the lowest risk of divorce.

Specifically, he measured the risk of divorce within the first five years of marriage. I suppose it's hard to predict everything that could end up pulling people apart in the long term.

So what is this golden age?

Apparently, you're least likely to get a divorce if you marry between the ages of 28 and 32.

Why is it so specific?

Frankly, Wolfing can't explain why this is. Yet he maintains that "we do know beyond a shadow of a doubt that people who marry in their thirties are now at greater risk of divorce than are people who wed in their late twenties. This is a new development." 

So what makes him so sure?

No matter how he tried to control the data, that age range persisted.

He tested for race, education, religion, sexual history, family background, and even the size of cities couples lived in. Yet he still found that marriages beginning before and after the ideal age were more likely to end in divorce.

This is how the risks are spaced out.

At first, they're highest before the age of 20 and decrease by 11 percent for each year before the age of 32. However, they go up about five percent for each year after that.

The high risk of younger couples didn't surprise experts much.

Other research pointed to the financial insecurity that tends to grip couples under 20, as well as the rapid changes that people are still going through.

But what's so risky for older couples?

As far as Wolfing can tell, those who wait after the age of 32 to get married may find that marriage isn't right for them. He added that even if this isn't the case, a marriage-oriented person will have a difficult time finding a like-minded person past this "Goldilocks" age.

If you don't agree with Wolfing's findings, you're not alone.

Philip Cohen from the Univeristy of Maryland used data from the American Community Survey and found that the ideal age was between 45 to 49. So there's no reason to worry if this age feels like a better fit for you.

Other research points to a few different factors for a successful marriage.

The risks of divorce apparently go down if both partners have a college degree and some financial stability.

It also helps to get engaged before moving in together.

Apparently this helps reduce pressure to get married for the wrong reasons.

What about kids?

It used to raise your risk of divorce if you had kids before marriage but it apparently doesn't make much difference anymore. Couples don't feel the same pressure they did in the '90s and that's apparently affected the data.

So if you don't fall in this "ideal age," maybe you're blazing a trail we've haven't seen the effects of yet. Love who you love and don't worry too much about these little details.

Don't forget to COMMENT and tell us which one makes sense to you.