Marriage Still in Recession

The Pew Research Center released a new report detailing the continued decline of marriage in 2011.  Using data collected by the Census Bureau's American Community Survey, Pew reported on the 4.2 million Americans who tied the knot in 2011.  This continues the downward trend in marriage that began when the ACS began asking about marital status in 2008.

Half (51%) of all adults were married in 2011, as compared with 72% in 1960.  This downward trend occurred among all age and education groups, with the largest drop occurring among the less-educated.  Between 2008 and 2011, marriage among Americans without a high school or equivalent education fell by 14%, while those with a college degree only fell 10%.

U.S. marriage rate hits a record low

The Pew Research Center released an analysis of new 2010 U.S. Census data on marriage, which shows a record low in the percentage of married U.S. adults.  Only 51% of adults ages 18 and over reported being married, down from 72% in 1960.  Over the same 50-year period, divorce or separation has increased from 5% to 14%, and the percent never married increased from 15% to 28%.

The most telling trend in terms of marital trends can be found in the young adult population.  Twenty percent of those ages 18 to 29 reported being married, just over one third of the percent married 50 years ago (59%).  In addition, the median age of first marriage has increased by roughly six percent over this time period, up to roughly 28 years old.

Though Pew does not definitively explain the declining trends in marriage, they cite the rising share of young adults enrolled in college and “fallout from the Great Recession” as potential contributing factors.  Pew also cites a U.N. report on marriage in developed nations between the 1990s and 2000s, quoting: “this was ‘due in part to an increasing acceptance of consensual [cohabiting] unions as a replacement for marital unions,’” which may also contribute to declining percentages in the United States.