This is an archived copy of a post written by Conflict Of Justice (conflictofjustice.com). Used with permission: Conflict Of Justice may not agree with any alterations made.
”One common justification that many Mormons have given for polygamy was that there were more women than men, and the women needed husbands in the harsh West to survive.”
(MormonThink)
Did polygamy provide husbands to women who were widowed or unable to find husbands ? In order for this to be true, there would logically need to be more men than women. Critics cite official United States census records to show that Utah during polygamy years had more men than women. It is considered settled science that Utah had more men than women. The problem with this is it only looks at total males and females and does not consider ages of marriage:
| Year | Males | Females |
| 1850 | 6,020 | 5,310 |
| 1860 | 20,178 | 19,947 |
| 1870 | 43,451 | |
| 1880 | 73,477 | 68,946 |
More Females Than Males Of Marrying-Age
These statistics are deceitful, because when you break the population down by age you actually get more women of young-adult age than men early in Utah’s history. These are the ages which Utah residents were marrying, therefore this is the most pertinent data for considering whether population ratios could be a factor for the policy of polygamy. The census data shows Utah starting out with a surplus of women of marrying age and then gradually developing a surplus of men:
| Year | Males Age 20-40 | Females Age 20-40 |
| 1850 | Missing Data | Missing Data |
| 1860 | 5,299 | 5,532 |
| 1870 | 11,179 | 10,671 |
| 1880 | 20,362 | 17,693 |
- Surplus Of Women – Utah residents of typical marrying age (20-40) switch from a surplus of women to a surplus of men in the 1860’s. But even later in the 1870 census, the data shows more females than males for ages 18 and 19 (1,453 males versus 1,498 females) and more females than males for age 20 (731 males versus 780 females), which are the most likely marrying ages for church populations of the time. So when it comes to the most likely ages for marrying, there were still more women than men. The 1880’s census likewise shows more females than males of most of likely marrying ages: For age 19 (1,376 males versus 1,488 females), and for age 20 (1,435 males versus 1,534 females), though not for ages 18 and 21.
- 1850 Data Missing – Unfortunately, the scan of the 1850 census on the government website is missing the page with this data. Page 993 is where page 988 should be. The only data I could find is for age 30-40, which is less likely marrying age and only represents a quarter of the state population. So I threw this data out.
- More Women Immigrant Converts Of Likely Marrying Age – 1880’s census data shows an almost even split between males and females of foreign birth (21,826 males versus 21,639). But from ages 20-24, there is more women (1,904 male versus 2,010 female).
- Utah Had Highest Percentage Of Women In Entire Western United States – A map of population variation by sex shows Utah with the highest percentage of women. Lighter colored bubbles show a smaller surplus of men:
- More Girls Were Being Born Than Boys – Census statistics show more girls than boys under age 18 residing in Utah consistently through each decade. How could that be? If there were consistently more females being born, and if immigration only barely provided more men than women, how could the population possibly switch from a surplus of females to a surplus of males? Where did all the females go? There must be a significant omission in the data.
- Most Marriages Not Counted – Only 31% of the men and 36% of the women in 1880 census were counted as married (23,130 males & 25,241 females). This is a very small perectage. How could almost the same percentage of women be married as men if there were less women and this were a polygamous system? There was only 8% more married women counted than men, which would seem to indicate only 8% of women were polygamous. Who were all of the other men married to?