The 2003 Indiana Marriage Report provides a summary of information about all of the marriages
that occurred in the State of Indiana during 2003. The information provided in this report is intended for professionals, students, legislators, and others
interested in marriage data.
Marriage data are tabulated by both place of issuance
and residence of bride and groom. The number of brides and grooms may
differ for county of residence since the two individuals may not reside in the same
county or state.
Indiana law does not require the bride and groom to marry in the
county that issued their license unless they are both non-Indiana
residents.
In Indiana, the minimum age for marriage is 18. Exceptions to this
requirement are provided for those under age 18 if court
approval and/or parental consent is obtained.
This report also provides data on a number of characteristics of the marriage (month of occurrence, day of occurrence, and ceremony type)
as well as characteristics of both the bride and the groom (age, education level, race, place of residence, previous marital status, and number
of marriages).
Currently, Indiana uses the 1977 Office of Management and Budget (OMB) standards for collecting data on race.
These standards are in use by all states that have not yet revised their birth certificates to meet the 1997 OMB standards for
collecting race information. The 1977 standards are also the standards used by the National Vital Statistics
System for national reporting. The relationship between these two OMB standards and the terms used to report race in this report are as follows: