According to a recent study, wedding bells are not ringing for the majority of younger adults in the United States, while marriage rates for older adults have increased over the past 50 years.
The study, conducted by the Institute for Family Studies, showed that only 48.6 percent of adults in the U.S. between the ages of 18-64 are currently married. This constitutes an all-time low.
According to the research, there are a number of different factors playing into this decline.
More couples are marrying later, or have decided to live with their significant other instead of getting married. Additionally, the number of never-married adults in this age group rose from 26 percent in 1990 to 36 percent in 2016.
The study also found that individuals who are under the age of 35 and those without a college education are more prone to staying unmarried.
In addition, the decline in marriage for young adults was seen across the board, from varying racial and ethnic groups, and included both men and women.
If there is anything positive to be found in this study, it is the fact that while a smaller share of adults is married today, among those who are married, the good news is that their likelihood of divorce is also lower.
Marriage for adults in their retired years, 65 and older, is seeing a slight increase, rising from 36 percent to 45 percent in 2016.
Factors such as longer life expectancies, particularly among men, were a major contributor in the increase of marriage for older adults. While older men previously outnumbered women among married adults in their age group, the gap has become more narrow in recent years. Today, for every 100 married men above the age of 65, there are 80 married women – compared to 64 women in 1960.
The study also noted that the divorce rate among this age group has roughly remained the same – around 3 divorces per 1,000 married adults since 2008.
Future trends indicate that the gap between married and non-married younger adults will most likely continue to grow.
The bedrock of society, the nuclear family, has been set upon by forces which threaten to bring it to extinction.
How humanity will fare in the face of this negative barrage against marriage and the family will be the topic of future research and study.
Let us hope there is a civilized society left to learn from those findings.
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