Math theory reveals the best age to get married

A new math theory suggest that people should get married at the age of 26 as it is the best time for them to make a life partner.

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A representative image.
A representative image.
  • Tom Griffiths and Brian Christian says that the best age to commit to a life partner is 26.
  • According to this theory, if you’re any younger or older than 26, you’re going to argue too much and it just won’t work out. 
  • The rule dictates that once you’re 37% of the way through completing something within a set timeframe, then you have reached the perfect point at which to decide.


A new math theory has suggested that people should get married at the age of 26 as it is the best time for them to make a life partner.

In their book, Algorithms to Live By: The Computer Science of Human Decisions, Tom Griffiths and Brian Christian wrote that the best age to commit to a life partner is 26.

The rule dictates that once you’re 37% of the way through completing something within a set timeframe, then you have reached the perfect point at which to decide, The Independent reported.

If the average person is looking for their perfect match between the ages of 18-40, then 26 is the ideal age, because you’re 37% of the way through the 22 years.

According to this theory, if you’re any younger or older than 26, you’re going to argue too much and it just won’t work out.

If you want to get technical though, searching for that special someone is known as an “optimal stopping problem.” With over 1,000 possibilities, Christian and Griffiths explain that you should stop at 36.81% of the way through.

Just a heads up, if you’ve got more options, you can get way closer to 37%, because you'll have lots more opportunity to reach 37% bang on, so be sure to play the field.

University of Utah sociologist Nicholas. H. Wolfinger goes against this theory though, as he discovered in July 2015 that the best age to get married in order to avoid divorce was 28-32, which is more like 45%.

According to UK publication, the rule of 37% isn’t perfect, because it doesn’t really account for the fact that our tastes may change between the ages 18-40, and we may be looking for something different.