You can get married as young as nine in Iran but men have to wait till they’re 22 to tie the knot in China

On Friday, the Spanish government announced it was to raise the marriage age from 14 to 16 to bring it into line with the rest of Europe.

Estonia now has the lowest marriage age in Europe with teenagers able to get hitched at 15 with parental approval.

Globally, the average legal age of marriage for boys is 17 and 16 for girls but many countries permit them, particularly girls, to marry much younger.

Several places, including the state of Massachusetts in the United States, allow girls as young as 12 to get married in “exceptional circumstances” with the consent of a judge.

But in many cases this is a leftover from an earlier age and is rarely tested. Many countries with low marriage ages do not have a particularly high number of under 18s getting married.

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CHART showing Legal marriage age across world- with and without parental consent.