WORLD Policy Analysis Center

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Child marriage Child marriage Child marriage Child marriage Child marriage Protection from Child MarriageThe WORLD Policy Analysis Center analyzed the following sources to establish the minimum age at which a girl or boy can be married with no restrictions in each country as of May 31st, 2023:

Lexadin World Law Guide;

Foreign Law Guide;

International Labour Organization (ILO)’s NATLEX database;

Pacific Islands Legal Information Institute;

Asian Legal Information Institute;

JaFBase; and

Official country websites.

If information from the abovementioned sources was not available, the following sources were reviewed:

The most recent reports submitted by countries to the monitoring committees of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) as of May 2023, as well as the reports detailing the committees’ concluding observations.

In some cases, hard copies and electronic copies of legislation were obtained from libraries such as the Swiss Institute for Comparative Law, the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) Law Library, the Harvard Law School Library, and the Northwestern University Library.The database captures national-level legislation. In countries where minimum age of marriage laws are set at the state or provincial level, we coded based on the state or province with the lowest minimum age provisions.For details on the variables included in this category, please see WORLD global maps on Child Marriage.For more information about WORLD’s approach to building globally comparative databases on policies affecting human health, development, well-being, and equity, please visit our Methodology page.