See Table 3 for details of changes in overall average age of first marriage (SMAM) in the region, and in percentage of married girls under 18.) While these rates, along with the figures indicated below, may not be always consistent or exact, they do nevertheless give a fair indication of the persistence of this problem and its overall prevalence. Moreover, examining data on women aged between 20 and 49 years, researchers found that 43.7 per cent of women in this age group in Yemen (in 2013), 23.5 per cent of women in this age group in Syria (in 2009), and 18.5 per cent of women in this age group in Morocco (in 2011) were married before the age of eighteen.52 Furthermore, the PAPFAM research found that age differences and educational disparities between spouses in marriages involving minors were associated with divorce.