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The tables presented here are preprints from tables 1, 9a, 16, and 18 of Final Report PC(2)-4D, and tables 1, 2, 8, and 10 of Final Report PC(2)-4E, which contains additional information on detailed characteristics of the population by marital status and age at first marriage.
About 76 percent of the men who had been married less than a year at the time of the 1960 census were married once and had a wife who had been married only once; another 11 percent had a wife who had been married more than once; and 12 percent were living apart from their wives because of military service, marital discord, or other reasons.
Among men who first married 60 years before the census, about 17,000 were still married once with a wife who had been married only once. These men represented 27 percent of all surviving men first married 60 years earlier. Most of the remainder were widowed.
Married couples with both spouses married only once had been married, on the average, about 18 years.
Among married couples enumerated in 1960, the median age of all husbands was about 44 years, and the median age of all wives was about 41 years. The median age of wife was 31 years in couples where the husband was 30 to 34 years old, 49 years where the husband was 50 to 54 years old, and 67 years where the husband was 70 to 74 years old.
The PDF to the right contains the 20-page report.
Census statistics date back to 1790 and reflect the growth and change of the United States. Past census reports contain some terms that today’s readers may consider obsolete and inappropriate. As part of our goal to be open and transparent with the public, we are improving access to all Census Bureau original publications and statistics, which serve as a guide to the nation's history.
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