Most Kenyan men avoiding marriage: Study
Study shows the number of men who are aging without ever settling down is higher compared to spinsters in the country.
Most Kenyan men are avoiding marriage and opting to stay single till their sunset years, a new research has shown.
About half of Kenyan men are increasingly reaching old age without ever tying the knot in their lifetime, indicates the report launched on November 2, 2022, by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS).
According to the report which provided insight to the 2019 Census, the number of men who are aging without ever settling down is higher compared to spinsters in the country.
Moreover, the age for settling down among men has also increased gradually over the past decade.
For instance, the average age of men at marriage in the 1980s was 25 years compared to the current age of 29 years which means that men are waiting longer before making the lifetime commitment.
The average age for marriage in the country for women has also increased to 25 years from 21 years in the 1980s.
The report also illustrates that men hasten to remarry in the event of a separation, divorce or demise of a spouse compared to their women counterparts.
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This is evidenced by the 2019 Census report in which a large number of women disclosed that they were widowed at seven percent compared to one percent of men who said they are divorced.
The survey further shows that women are avoiding bearing many children as compared to the past years.
Over a period of ten years, the number of children born to every woman has significantly dropped to only three children from seven.
Women are also choosing to wait longer before giving birth to their firstborns and embarking on motherhood journey.
As opposed to a decade ago when most women would deliver their first bundle of joy at a tender age of 20 years, modern women are waiting until when they are about to approach 30 before giving birth.
Increase in the number of men and women in the country avoiding or delaying getting hitched as well as delaying child birth and reducing the number of children could be attributed to religious doctrines, harsh economic times, education pursuits and personal resolutions.
Interestingly, more women from rural areas tend to choose to remain unmarried following separation, divorce or demise of their partners compared to their city counterparts.
The report indicates that few households in urban areas are headed by females as women opt to remarry compared to rural areas where a large number of family heads are women.
