Do people in rural areas marry/want to marry earlier?

My sister who lives in Chicago made me think about this. She is almost 25 and dating a man 12 years older than her. She is happy with him although she is nervous that he won't want to marry, which she sees as an important goal in her life, anytime soon. Before she dated him, she tended to like guys closer to her own age or even younger but they didn't seem to want real relationships. She concluded that men in Chicago weren't even thinking about marriage or a relationship leading to marriage until they were in their thirties. We grew up in a rural area of Ohio as did my cousins. My cousins who are that age married by their mid twenties. My 21 year old cousin is getting married this fall. In the lifestyle section of our hometown paper, marrying young seems to be common.
We think that it has something to do with the large number of available potential partners in an urban area. Community and family obligations seem to be valued more in rural areas too. There is also the issue of getting a reputation in rural areas. Men that are hump them, dump them guys who persist in that behavior past their mid twenties start to not have women who want to date them.

only way to leave your parents' house?

In small towns, moving in with friends (even if the same gender) is not welcomed, or if it is OK, then there isn't a lot of realty available. And forget about cohabitation with a lover.

So, if you've had enough of Mom and Dad and their rules, marriage looks pretty attractive.

Young people who remain in small towns often have low paying jobs, and if they do move out of Mom & Dads house , getting married and having two incomes makes sense.. There is also a sense of inevitability in small-town USA.. The lives of the young people often parallel their parents', so they don't see any harm in marrying young. That's often a BIG mistake though, and lots end up with a couple of kids, lots of bills and divorce papers :(

People in small towns know the same people their whole lives, for the most part. What's the point of waiting? You know just about everybody you're going to know by the time you're in your early twenties, and you've known them for a long time.