So what's the difference in age between a man and a woman is normal? This question has interested psychologists and physicians in different countries. For example, in Finnish families it is considered that for the birth of healthy offspring the difference in age between spouses must be at least fifteen years.
However, in reality, everything looks somewhat different. There are not so many "correct" families in Finland. On average, a Finnish husband is older than his wife for only 3 years. Finnish scientists believe that this is one of the reasons why not so many healthy babies are born.
In Sweden, the statements of the Finns are not trusted. Is a man with adult sexual needs to wait another 15 years, when his young girlfriend ripens? Swedes, after studying a large number of married couples, decided that the difference in age between man and woman must be less 6 years . And, most surprisingly, the main criterion in choosing a life partner was not love, but the material well-being of the spouses. That is, the ideal partner for marriage is a man who has a good income, a constant and interesting work. And love ... is secondary.
A similar look at age differences is also found in the English. However, they were interested in another question. Does the intellectual level of men affect the health of their children?
These studies led English scientists to an interesting result - the smarter the man, the more chances his children have to be born healthy. They explain this by the fact that men with high intelligence are more prosperous, have a good job, and therefore cause greater interest in women of the opposite sex. Incidentally, in England, in almost half of families, the husband is no older than his wife for more than 5 years, the remaining half of the families are equally divided into those in which the spouse is younger than his wife, and those where the woman is younger than her husband for more than 6 years.
As always, Americans distinguished themselves. They decided that the age difference between a man and a woman almost does not affect the health of their children. Much more important is the age at which a woman lost her virginity. The healthiest babies were born to those who lost their virginity at the age of seventeen to eighteen. And also they have increased chances to create a full-fledged family with children (and Americans have less and less families each year). In children of women who started sex life earlier, or, conversely, later than this age, many diseases are much more common.
Russian doctors, after tracing a large number of marriages, found that in one of the three marriages, the husband is older than his wife for 2 to 5 years. Approximately equally of families in which the wife is older for several years and in which the spouse is 6 to 10 years older. A little more marriages between peers. According to statistics, marriages between one-year-olds are often concluded at a young age. And only in one of twenty families the difference in age between spouses for more than ten years.
There is another interesting pattern. A woman who is much older than her husband earns him more. The less age differences between spouses, the less the chances of a woman to overtake her husband in terms of income.
But is it worth attaching such great importance to the difference in age? Fortunately, we have more marriages for love than for convenience. And if there is love, then age has absolutely no significance. I think a wife should be a little older than her husband. Such a family will be stronger.