Map by Priceonomics; data from the United Nations World Marriage Data 2015

该示意图由Priceonomics提供；数据源自于2015年联合国世界婚姻数据库

Every year, parents have more and more reason toask their children when they plan to get married.

每年，父母都有越来越多的理由，询问孩子打算什么时候结婚。

This is the case around the world, becausemarrying later than the previous generation is a global trend. People aregetting married later—or not at all.

这一现象全世界都有，因为年轻人比上一代结婚晚已成为一种全球趋势。人们结婚越来越晚，有的人甚至不结婚。

Yet this similarity co-exists with differentmarriage practices that can make people’s lives vary tremendously from countryto country. In particular, which country you live in can impact how long youspend living single by as much as a decade.

不同国家由于婚姻习俗不同，人们的生活差异也会很大，但他们都存在晚婚这一类似现象。你所居住的国家会影响你单身的时间长度，最长甚至可达十年。

Yet the data still captures the fact that peopleenter marriage—a central institution for most of us—at different periods intheir lives.

然而，这些数据仍然反映出，人们在不同的人生阶段步入婚姻——我们大多数人都以此为生活中心。

To make the above table and map, we averaged theage at which men and women get married in each country. But this hides animportant dynamic: that men marry later than women. In this data set—which doesnot include a number of poorer countries—men in each country marry 3.7 yearslater than women.

为制作以上图表和示意图，我们算出来每个国家男性和女性的平均结婚年龄。但这隐含着极为重要的动向：男性结婚晚于女性。该数据集——不包含许多贫穷的国家，反映出各国男性结婚比女性结婚要晚3.7年。

This gender gap exists in every country. It islarger in poorer countries like Egypt,where women marry 5 years earlier than men. In richer countries like France,the gap is only 1.6 years.

每个国家结婚年龄在性别上都存在这样的差异。像在埃及这些稍微穷点的国家，结婚年龄在性别上的差异更大，其女性比男性结婚要早五年之久。像在法国这些富裕点的国家，结婚年龄在性别上的差异仅1.6年。

It remains common for women to marry very youngin some countries. According to U.N. reports, 39 countries have data showingthat 20% of women married by age 18. In twenty countries, a full 10% of womenmarried by age 15. In only 2 countries, however, are 10% of men married beforethe age of 18.

在一些国家，女性结婚很早仍然非常普遍。据联合国（U.N.）报道，有三十九个国家的数据显示，其20%的妇女结婚年龄为十八岁。有二十个国家，结婚年龄在十五岁的女性足足占10%。然而，有且仅有两个国家，在十八岁之前结婚的男性占到了10%。

Despite different and changing practices aroundthe world, shacking up is still the norm.

尽管世界各国不同的婚姻习俗，尽管这些习俗在不断变化，但同居关系仍是普遍现象。