Frequently, statistics are brought up about the fact that marriage age has moved up in recent decades.

While I don't dispute the statistics, the information doesn't paint the full or accurate picture. Cohabitation for some years before marriage has become pretty standard and, in most developed countries, nobody realistically expects people to marry in their early 20s.

To control for this normalization of cohabitation, marriage age statistics should also include the length of the relationship before getting married. Except for 1 friend I know (who is more religious than the rest of us heathens) who got married after 1 year of relationship at 23 years, everybody else got married after 25-26.

But everybody that did get married later, had actually been in a stable relationship for 4+ years before actually getting married and had been living together for at least 2 years. This also applied to me: met my wife at 22, moved in together after 2 years, got engaged after another 3 years and had the wedding after another years. Most of my social circle followed a similar path.