This might be due to people waiting longer to be married. In 1997, there were fewer marriages in the 20-24 age group than in 1996, although there were more marriages overall in 1997. A trend toward postponement of marriage, indicating a major change in social behavior, had already been noted nationwide. The majority of marriages, however, still tend to occur among young adults. In 1997, the age group with the greatest number of people marrying was 20 to 24 years of age followed by 25 to 29 years of age, regardless of gender.
Females continue to get married at an earlier age than males.
Although the number of males and females getting married between the ages of 20 and 29 is approximately equal, the age cohorts on either side of this group clearly show the gender difference. Females make up 69.8 percent of the teenagers who married in 1997, while males compromise 54.5 percent of those 30 or older who married. There were 93,088 divorces reported to the Bureau of Vital Statistics in 1997, a decrease of 2.2 percent from the 95,185 divorces reported for 1996. Since 1970, the first year of reliable reporting, the number of Texas divorces rose consistently and rapidly until a peak was reached in 1981 with 101,856 divorces. Crude divorce rates have followed the same pattern as the divorce numbers.