One question many females feel uncomfortable answering is “can you date/marry someone younger than you?”
The reason for this shyness is not far-fetched as research has unveiled most women are younger than their male partners. This was deduced after sampling couples across religions and regions in the world.
The female gender was also discovered could live at least a few years longer than men.
In a research conducted by Pew Research Center, “Across the world, women are about twice as likely as men to age alone. One-in-five women ages 60 and older live in a solo household (20%), compared with one-in-ten men (11%).”
– It Is Religious Dependent –
Nigerian couples sampled revealed a staggering fact which may confirm some people’s perception.
Christian men in Nigeria are 9.2 years older than their female partners, on average, while Muslim men are 13.0 years older. Nigeria’s population is about half Christian and half Muslim.
Across the world, Muslims have the widest spousal age gap (6.6 years between men and their wives or partners), followed by Hindus (5.6 years), Christians (3.8), Buddhists (2.9), the religiously unaffiliated (2.3) and Jews (2.1).
– Hindus and Muslims Less Likely To Live Alone –
Christians have the widest gap in rates of living alone (30% of Christian women live alone, vs. 14% of Christian men), though Jews also have a wide gap (28% of Jewish women vs. 14% of Jewish men).
The differences are smaller but still noticeable among the religiously unaffiliated (19% of women vs. 15% of men) and Muslims (10% of women vs. 3% men). Relatively few Hindus live alone, regardless of gender (6% of women vs. 2% of men).
Large age gaps are especially common in sub-Saharan Africa, including in Gambia (14.5 years between men and their wives or partners), Guinea (13.5) and Mali (12.9).
There are much narrower gaps in European countries such as the Czech Republic (2.0), Slovakia (2.1) and Estonia (2.2) – though the United States and China (both 2.2) also are notable examples of small gaps.
– Women Are More Likely To Be Single Parents –
Across the world, middle-aged women (those ages 35 to 59) are also more likely than their male counterparts to live in single-parent households.
The pattern of spousal age gaps – and the fact that women tend to live at least a few years longer than men – helps explain another universal theme: Across the world, women are about twice as likely as men to age alone.
One-in-five women ages 60 and older live in a solo household (20%), compared with one-in-ten men (11%).
– Christians Are More Likely To Be A Single Parent –
Across the world, middle-aged women are four times as likely as men to live with one or more minor children and no other adults (4% of women vs. 1% of men).
The gap is biggest among Christians (7% of women vs. 2% of men).
Gaps are smaller but still notable among Jews, Muslims, Hindus and the religiously unaffiliated.
However, Buddhist men and women do not differ much on this measure.
These patterns partly reflect the large share of Christians in sub-Saharan Africa, where single-parent households are relatively common, and the big shares of Buddhists in Asia, where such households are rare.
In sub-Saharan Africa, 9% of middle-aged women and 2% of middle-aged men live in single-parent households, followed closely by North America (8% of women vs. 2% of men) and the Latin America-Caribbean region (7% of women vs. 1% of men).
Middle-aged men tend to live in single-parent homes at about the same rate all over the world and regardless of religion; any differences in rates of single parenthood affect women almost exclusively.
The research was conducted by Pew Research Center, a nonpartisan fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping the world.
It conducts public opinion polling, demographic research, media content analysis and other empirical social science research.
Lanre News | Latest News In Nigeria | Africa | Around the World.