Grenada Raises Legal Marriage Age to 18

A photograph of Grenada’s Prime Minister, Dickon Mitchell, as posted on his official Facebook page.

By Val Matthias. Updated 10:56 a.m., Friday, November 7, 2025, Atlantic Standard Time (GMT-4).

Grenada has officially raised the legal age of marriage to 18, closing a decades-old loophole that allowed minors to marry with parental consent. The amendment to the 1966 Marriage Act was passed by Parliament and defended by Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell as a necessary step to protect children and modernise the country’s child welfare laws.

“This amendment ensures that vulnerable children are not married off at the consent of their parents,” Mitchell told lawmakers during the November 4 debate. “At 16, they will be barely leaving high school,” he added, warning that the previous law exposed financially vulnerable families to exploitation by “nefarious actors” arranging child marriages.

The revised legislation prohibits the solemnisation of any marriage where either party is under 18, removing all exceptions previously allowed under parental or judicial consent. Under Grenadian law, a child is defined as any person under the age of 18.

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In contrast, St. Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) still permit marriage from age 16 with parental consent, according to the Marriage Act, Chapter 173 of the Laws of SVG. Females may marry from age 15 and males from age 16, but both require parental or guardian consent until age 18, which is the age of majority in St. Vincent and the Grenadines.

The move by Grenada aligns it with international child protection standards and follows similar reforms in Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago. Advocates across the region have long called for harmonised legislation to prevent child marriage and safeguard minors’ rights.

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