California has banned child marriage, becoming the 18th US state to completely prohibit marriage before the age of 18. Gov. Gavin Newsom signed AB 1267 into law on September 30, setting 18 as the minimum marriage age for California’s nearly 4.2 million girls without exceptions. The law will take effect on January 1, 2027.
Child marriage in US was legal even 10 years back in all 50 states. Then in 2018, Delaware and New Jersey banned it, and now most recently, Golden State joined the list. But California's move pointed towards the grim reality of child marriages in US. A 2025 report conducted by Unchained At Last found that more than 300,000 minors were married in the US between 2000 and 2018.
As per the UN’s international human rights law, these are 'forced marriages' and there are still 32 US states that still practice them. According to the nonprofit, these states still allow marriage involving people under 18 in some form. The rules are different from state to state, with various exceptions allowing minors to marry.
Which US states still allow child marriage?
The 32 states are Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming.
The laws are not identical. In some states, marriage is possible at 16 or 17 with parental or judicial approval. In others, state statutes do not specify a minimum age, which technically leaves other provisions to determine when a minor can marry.
Two US states with no minimum age to marry
Unchained At Last's map categorizes the youngest marriage age allowed as 18, 17, 16, 15 or, in some states, 0 where no minimum age is specified in the statute. As California's law takes effect, Mississippi and New Mexico will be the only two states whose statutes do not specify a minimum marriage age.
