RE: The total amount of marriages of between 10 and 20 plus years difference in the US is only 7.4% of all marriages.
What really is of interest though is how these large gap marriages are faring compared to the small age difference marriages. Are they more likely to last, or not?
A lot of it is due to the expectations of each partner. It must be fairly sure as I have read that if a woman marries a man 20 years plus her senior and she’s in her forties, she is not looking for adventure in the sack. He might, but not her.
Women, from what I’ve read are looking for something different at that point generally like companion ship and security.
... many women cite maturity, wisdom, and financial stability as good reasons to date men who are older.
Of course this is the normal first step to marriage or cohabitation.
rwood
There were two big gap marriages in my family. My sister married a man 19 years older when she was 22, they were married nearly 40 years- until her death. One of my brothers married a woman 16 years younger when she was 24. They were married 35 years- until her death. The irony with both was people always say the younger woman will end up taking care of an older man and in my family it turned out to be the opposite. Both my sister and my sister in law died from cancer far too soon.