Well, that depends on your particular culture and community. It certainly shouldn't be younger than the legal age for a given jurisdiction. I live in the UK and our minimum legal age for marriage is 16. However, I can't think of any 16-year-olds with the maturity for taking on the responsibilities of marriage. As 16- and 17-year-old here require "parental" permission to marry I don't think it would be any great hardship to raise the minimum legal age to 18. The same age at whch one legally becomes an adult. I can't say I've met many 18-year-olds sufficiently mature enough emotionally and psychologically for the responsibilities of marriage. Whilst I wouldn't want to make in legal for marriage not to be entered into before one's early 20s I do think a large number of young people would do well to be counselled to wait. I think people are not emotionally and psycholigically mature enough for marriage until they have graduated from university or have a number of years' work experience.