Please look at this stats from the us census (table MS-2) estimated median age at first marriage by male/female, going back to 1890;
Pretty clear across the board men marry younger women;
Is it because females mature earlier than males? maybe;
in talmud times marriageable age started for females before 13; for males around 18;
you may argue that men sometimes married multiple women;
that basically stopped after the cherem of R’GMH.
perhaps the ages quoted above also changed, but then need we need to go back to the us census stats;
if the theory of nassi is correct, this shiduch crisis should have appeared way back in our history, and i don;t believe it is the case. so i personally don’t see the math concurring with reality;
Maybe there are more odd boys than girls; I don’t know;
What i do know is that there are many jewish girls (& boys) in pain because they are not married and having families, and that should be painful to all of us; any efforts to solve the issue should be welcomed ; not sure it can be pinned on one reason alone , either;
One thing which could be done, if a lot more people feeling the pain would volunteer some of their time in a concerted effort to try and run more shiduchim ; as has been said, professional shadchanim focus on their income, (and i have nothing against that); but if a large effort is done by volunteers who are not looking for money, then we can have a positive influence;
perhaps a 100% free website oriented to shiduchim, well written , well designed , so volunteer shdchanim can propose matches, and/or people can search for matches , and request volunteers to match them ; i would even have an eYente 🙂 there
