41
17
of either sex, in any social group). In 1911 a few “infant marriages” are noted. These must be the San Po Tsai marriages which are known to have been quite common. In 1921 the census ignored these marriages, recording only those couples actually living together as man and wife, treating “infant marriages” as the infant betrothals they in fact were. Probably many of the couples living together as man and wife at the age of 13 - 15 in the 1921 Census were in fact such “infant marriages”.
## Table 15 ### Married State: 1921 Census | Age | Northern District | Southern District (Land) | Southern District (Boat) | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | | Males Females | Males Females | Males Females | | 13 | | 28% 70% | 34% 2.9% 12% 11% | | 14 | 4 2 (1.2%) (1.1%) | 70 64 | 77 | | 15 | 60 21 5 | 94 124 | 15 15 5 | | 16 | 32.6 99 | 236 3.2 | 22.5 | | 17 | 17 0 | 507 13 9 | 37 1 41 25 4 | | 18 | 26.4 603 | 28 1 532 | 4.7 283 | | 19 | 448 65.0 | 424 77 7 | 45 7 45 1 | | 20-24 | 55.3 95 9 | 50 2 89.3 | 47 4 92 2 | | 25-29 | 77 4 99 0 | 70 1 95 2 | 70.2 97 4 | | 30-34 | 87.7 99 4 | 80 3 98.3 | 85.0 99 | | 35-39 | 94 5 99.6 | 88.5 99 3 | 91.9 100 | | 40-44 | 95.9 99 4 | 91 8 98.8 | 97 9 99 4 | | 45-49 | 97 0 99 4 | 94.8 98 8 | 98 9 100 |Figures for "married" includes widow(er)s.
Women married younger than men. The women of the settled Northern District married noticeably younger than those in Southern District, with the Southern District floating population marrying significantly later than the land women. Thus, more than a fifth of Northern District women married at 15 or younger, a third were married by 16, and half by 17. By the age of 19, two-thirds of Northern District women were married, and almost all were by 24. In the Southern land population, however, these percentages were reached in every case about 6 months or a year later than in Northern District, and, for the floating population, up to 3 years later. While the immigrant nature of Islands society is the most likely reason for the differences, a social divergence between the land and floating populations is likely as well.