Rabat – The High Commission for Planning (HCP) has published a report showing that single living is on the rise in Morocco.
The report, “Population and development in Morocco,” emphasized that marriage has been in a continuous decline in Morocco in recent years.
The report studies the current average marriage age compared to the previous generations.
The study emphasized that Moroccan women used to marry on average at the age of 17 while men tied the knot at 24 during the independence era (1956).
However, the average age for first marriages reached “very high levels” (31 years for men and 25 years for women) in 2014.
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The study showed that marriage ages changed from 31.3 years to 31.9 for men, and from 25.7 years to 25.5 for women in 2018.
“The transition from early marriage to an increasingly late marriage took place simultaneously in both urban and rural areas.”
The study finds that female celibacy reached “high levels at critical ages.”
In statistics, HCP said that almost a quarter to 24% of women aged 30 between 30 and 34 had never been married, with permanent celibacy accounting for more than 11% of women aged 45 -49.
Last year, British NGO Family Optimise released a study showing an increasing number of women who choose to remain single until later in life. The study shows that 60% of women of marriageable age are single.
The study indicates that the number of single women has increased by 4.6%, with 60% of Moroccan women (or 8 million) remaining unmarried.
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The study emphasized that Moroccan women are increasingly inclined to marry in their late twenties or early thirties.
