Afghanistan Mortality Survey 2010 - Measure DHS

3.3.1 Current Marital StatusData on the marital status of female respondents at the time of the survey are shown in Table3.10. Overall, 45 percent of women age 12-49 have never married, while 54 percent are currently married.At age 12-14, the proportion never-married is more than 99 percent, and by age 30-34, marriage is nearlyuniversal for women—only 4 percent have never married. Marital dissolution is rare among Afghancouples. Across all ages, the proportion divorced or separated is very small, less than 1 percent.Widowhood is not evident until age 20 and increases with age. Five percent of women age 40-44 and 8percent of those age 45-49 are widowed.Table 3.10 Current marital statusPercent distribution of women age 12-49 by current marital status, according to age, Afghanistan2010AgeMarital statusNevermarried Married Divorced Separated Widowed TotalNumber ofwomen12-14 99.5 0.5 0.0 0.0 0.0 100.0 8,38215-19 82.6 17.3 0.0 0.0 0.0 100.0 11,49620-24 33.8 65.7 0.0 0.1 0.4 100.0 7,95225-29 10.1 89.0 0.1 0.1 0.8 100.0 5,90130-34 3.6 94.8 0.0 0.1 1.6 100.0 4,18935-39 1.3 95.4 0.1 0.1 3.1 100.0 4,10940-44 1.0 93.6 0.1 0.1 5.3 100.0 3,19845-49 0.5 91.2 0.0 0.0 8.3 100.0 2,620Total 12-49 44.6 53.9 0.0 0.1 1.4 100.0 47,8483.3.2 Age at First MarriageMarriage marks the point in a woman’s life when childbearing becomes socially acceptable. Ageat first marriage has a major effect on childbearing because women who marry early have, on average, alonger period of exposure to the risk of becoming pregnant and a greater number of lifetime births.Information on age at first marriage was obtained by asking respondents for the month and year, or age atwhich they began living with their first husband.Table 3.11 presents information on age at first marriage. The table shows the percentage of allwomen age 12-49 who first married by specified exact ages and the median age at first marriage,according to current age. Marriage occurs relatively early in Afghanistan. Overall, 92 percent of womenare married by the time they reach age 25. However, there is strong evidence of a rising age at firstmarriage in Afghanistan among women below age 35 (Figure 3.4). The proportion married by age 15declines from 25 percent among women age 30-34 to 4 percent among women age 15-19. Similardeclines are seen in the proportions of women married by age 18 and 20. The median age at marriagerises from 16.9 among women age 30-34 to 19.2 among women age 20-24. 33 The median age at first marriage for women age 15-49 reported in the NRVA 2007/8 is 18 years, which is similaralthough not strictly comparable to the AMS 2010 median for women age 20-49 (18.1 years).Fertility, Marriage, and Family Planning | 51