In this paper an attempt has been made to examine the levels and differentials of
female age at marriage and also identify the factors that influencing to be married “before”
or “at the time or after” the legal age at of marriage of females in Bangladesh for rural and
urban settings. For this purpose, the present study utilizes data extracted from nationally
representative 2004 Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey. The mean age at first
marriage of Bangladeshi women was found to be 15.01 years. The study finds that, the
mean age at marriage is lower by 0.72 years among the rural women (14.76 years) than
their urban counterparts (15.48 years). The logistic regression analysis of the study
apparently suggests that, the first age at marriage of the women for both rural and urban
settings significantly varies with women’s education, religion, childhood place of
residence, education and occupation of husband, region of residence and socioeconomic
status. Among the variables considered in the analysis, women’s education has been found
to have the most single strongest influence in the variation of mean age at marriage for
both rural and urban settings.