AGE GAP: Analyzing church records from preindustrial Finland, scientists have found that men marrying women 15 years younger and women marrying men 15 years older produced the most surviving offspring.
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Men marry younger women and women prefer to marry older men, in general. But is it culture, genetics or the environment that drives such a choice—and is there an optimal age difference? New research shows that, at least for the Sami people of preindustrial Finland, men should marry a woman almost 15 years their junior to maximize their chances of having the most offspring that survive.
"We studied how parental age difference at marriage affected [families'] reproductive success among Sami people who married only once in their lifetime[s]," says ecologist Samuli Helle of the University of Turku in Finland. "We found that marrying women 14.6 years younger maximized men's lifetime reproductive success—in other words, the number of offspring surviving to age 18."
The researchers did this by examining church records of 700 marriages from the Utsjoki, Inari and Enontekiö populations from the 17th through 19th centuries (in order to eliminate the effects of modern medicine on child survival).
Yet, only 10 percent of these marriages were between men and women with that optimal age difference. The span ranged from men marrying women as much as 20 years older to women marrying men as much as 25 years older; the average age difference between husband and wife was three years. Marriage customs or the availability of reindeer to support a new family (the Sami people are reindeer herders) might be the reason that more Sami marriages did not display the optimum age difference, Helle says.
Ultimately, it is the age at which the woman begins bearing children that is the biggest factor in survival, the paper in Biology Letters suggests: Younger women, in general, bear more healthy children. Marrying an older woman or much older man proved the most detrimental to reproductive success.
Other research in modern day Sweden has shown that the ideal reproductive match is for a man to marry a woman six years his junior. But the cultural constraints on marriage may have changed. "Wealth was the most important factor in a [Sami] marriage," Helle notes. "Love played almost no role in it."
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30 Comments
Add CommentIs this a typo? Did they author mean an older woman?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisYounger women, in general, bear more healthy children. Marrying an older man or much older man proved the most detrimental to reproductive success.
wealth always play the most important part in marriage .especially when young women encounter such a elder,when she concern is not the nest generation , but also aimed to get his money and find a handsome boy to restart her life, especially in China,
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThat's a typo indeed. Thanks for catching it.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisOh, and the more things change, the more they stay the same madousa :-D
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhoa, it's cool that the author is actually speaking in the comments.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThanks for writing on this, David. I've been wondering about this ever since someone told me that older men marry younger women because a man's earning peak occurs later than a woman's reproductive peak.
It makes sense biologically too -- from the standpoint of ages at which women become too old and the risk of mutation rises precipitously. At 35, the risk of downs syndrome doubles. They need to count genetic health issues of offspring in there too. Men can basically produce healthy offspring at virtually any age.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThanks for the compliment Mansoor. But I must note this spiralsun1—the quality of sperm (and ability to spread it) also start to drastically decline with age too. Hence the fitness penalty for women who married much older men.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisdon't you think it is unfair that men and women have different longth of youth? They are not match!!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thiswomen are born to be weak corz their youth are shorter than men.
yeah, and there are studies showing old mice live longer when have a babymouse to warm them.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAbout 60 years ago my math teacher gave us the rule : half + seven
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisRichard Schorn
richard.schorn@t-online.de
Interesting! Studying the marriage records is not enough! I suggest that the reason young women in many cultures marry older men is that it takes ten to fifteen years for a man to accumulate enough wealth to interest them!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIt would be nice to see research on happiness in marriage independent of offspring fitness; some of us are looking for a life-partner but don't want to reproduce.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this--
Edited by MemeGene at 12/12/2007 1:08 PM
traditions, culture and social norms have changed. but i find the golden rule of Half ur age plus seven ideal.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAnother "best age" is involved with cultural differences and available health care. I married a mail order bride from http://lovedbyher.com out of the Ukraine. On our third date she commented that men my age (I'm 20+ years older than her) in her country had failing health, degenerative disease etc.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAs a fact the poor health care in their country made a 40 year old women seem 60 and a 50 year old man seem like warmed over death. Hence for her I was the perfect age.
i am with a man 24 yrs older than me i am 21 he is 45 i believe NOTHING at all is wrong with it. we have been togetha for 3 yrs now and are engaged and planning to have children together
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThis is a really interesting topic. I go back and forth a lot about age differences, and their relevance to a romantic relationship. This article shows both sides.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thishttp://bettyconfidential.com/bettytalk/viewtopic.php?f=155&t=780
i am 58 years old man dating a 22 year old woman. I am divorced with 2 adult children & presently we plan on having children. While income plays a big role in relationships between older men and younger woman, i feel there are other factors such as maturity, responsibility, and commitment & i see a gap of about 10 years between the sexes in that regard. Women see their biological clock ticking by age 30, men by age 40 or more.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisGary Cline
gcline16@comcast.net
i am 58 years old man dating a 22 year old woman. I am divorced with 2 adult children & presently we plan on having children. While income plays a big role in relationships between older men and younger woman, i feel there are other factors such as maturity, responsibility, and commitment & i see a gap of about 10 years between the sexes in that regard. Women see their biological clock ticking by age 30, men by age 40 or more.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisGary Cline
gcline16@comcast.net
i thing the best age difference between men and women is 10 to 12
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisi thing the best age difference between men and women is 10 to 12
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHAHAHAH , THIS RESEARCH SEEMS TO BE FUNDED BY INSECURE OLDER MEN......UNFORTUNATELY MEN ALSO HAVE BIOLOGICAL CLOCKS...READ
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thishttp://www.dailyherald.com/story/print/?id=106959
GOD IS REALLY NOT PARTIAL ....
married to someone older IM 34 he is 31 and we are about to have our third child. I married him when pregant with first child who is now about 14 in 4 months and one other who is 10. he has been the greatest husband anyone could ask for, I met him at the age of 18. and have been happy ever since I would recomend anyone to do the same. I hate mem my age they are trying to hard
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisin the last comment I meant to say he is 61
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thistypo my husband is 61 not 31 sorry
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thismy love is 25 years older than me, and we are planning to get married in a year. sometimes i am afraid of some of the possible consequences but love and faith might solve all the problems.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI am a young girl and my love is 25 years older than me and we are planning to get married in a year. sometimes i am afraid of some of the possible consequences because of the age differences between us but love and faith might solve all the problems.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWomen LIVE 7-15 years LONGER than men. So women should marry younger men, this way the wife doesn't die of grief (I've seen this). Society is still biased. Would you let your daughter marry someone way older than her?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisResearch shows women should marry someone of the same age, but not too old...or else her life expectancy decreases.
If the man really loves the lady then he wouldn't want her to look after him in old age.
Men peak sexually at 18, women at 32! Male fertiliy declines at 35
this rule comparing the best woman to man age "half+ seven" has been said since 1400 year by the prophet Mohammad
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThank you Schorn . the rule you mentioned about the woman age compared to man "half + seven " has been said before 1400 years by the prophet Mohammad
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisExcuse me could you point me to where you have found such hadeeth. I'm a Muslim and I have yet to find it anywhere.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAs for the article it feels a bit biased and from a male dominance perspective. According to my textbook healthy sperm count declines in male as they age (usually from the 30s and same goes for women's reproducing rate). However, male in their early 20s tend to produce the most healthy sperm and women in her late teen (depending on when she had her period).
So looks like as a woman in her 30s I should marry a 20 year old male for the best outcome. Who needs love and understanding as long as we reproduce and contribute to world's over population.