Your Wedding Day: By the Numbers

A Statistical Look at True Love in America

How could anyone possibly reduce something as elusive as true love to mere numbers? Actually, if you do a bit of research on the Internet, it turns out to be easy. Here are some of the numbers to ponder as you consider tying the knot on Martha's Vineyard.

$18,874: That, according to Brides Magazine, is the average cost of a wedding in the United States. Wedding Magazine, which perhaps caters to a slightly tonier crowd, reports a figure of $20,434. These figures vary by region and are based on the median figure of 186 guests. Honeymoon costs, of course, are not included.

2.3 Million: According to the United States Census, that's the number of marriages that take place nationally each year. Do your math, and that breaks down to nearly 6,400 weddings per day.

25.1 and 26.8: The estimated median ages of women and men, respectively, on the day of their first marriage. The age for women has risen 4.3 years over the past three decades, according to the Census Bureau, while for men it has risen 3.6 years.

29,303: The number of jewelry stores counted by the federal Census Bureau as purveyors of wedding, engagement and other rings and baubles to lovers of all ages. The peak months of activity for these stores is in December; February, which includes Valentines Day, is a close second.

$2,982: The average amount spent in America on the engagement ring. The average budget for wedding bands is considerably lower at $1,060, according to Brides Magazine.

7.6 and 4.1: The number of marriages and divorces, per 1,000 population, in the United States in the year 2000. Yes, the divorce rate is now running at more than half of the marriage rate. Yet the statistics also show that most adults in America have married only once, and that hope seemingly springs eternal -- most of the people who have ever divorced are currently married.

Eight years: The median duration of first marriages that end in divorce. Please note, this doesn't mean that the average marriage lasts eight years -- it's only the average among marriages that don't last. When second marriages end in divorce, it's slightly sooner, after an average of 7.3 years for men and 6.8 years for women. We're going to need a mathematician to help us understand why these figures are different without leaving thousands of men out there somehow married to nobody.

205.4: The number of men per 100 women in the cowboy country of Crowley County, Colo., the most gender-unbalanced spot found by the federal Census Bureau anywhere in the United States. If you're a man looking for an imbalance in the other direction, you might try Clifton Forge, Va., which the Census Bureau says has a ratio of 78.9 men per 100 women. Or you might, quite simply, wait. The number of single men starts at 119 per 100 women for folks in their 20s, and declines slightly for unmarried adults of ages 30 to 44 (107 men per 100 women). But then the numbers plummet. Among folks age 65 and older, the ratio, according to the Census, is just 31 single men for every 100 single women.