A Snapshot of Marriage in the U.S

Marriage

  • People are getting married later in life. Median age for males is 27; for females it is 25.

    There has been a modest decline in the divorce rate since it reached an all- time high in 1980

  • In a given year nearly half of all marriages are remarriages for one or both partners.
  • The marriage rate (annual number of marriages per 1,000 unmarried adult women) continues to decline. It has dropped 50% (to 45.6) in fifty years.
  • The marriage rate for African- Americans is considerably lower than for any other U.S. population group.
  • The percentage of never married persons aged 25- 35 has increased by 20% in the past thirty years, suggesting more lifelong singlehood.
  • From 40% to 50% of Catholic marriages are between a Catholic and a non- Catholic; regional averages may be higher or lower.
  • More than 80% of couples seeking to be married in the Catholic Church participate in a marriage preparation program.
  • Within the first few years of marriage nearly half of all inter- church couples become same- church because one spouse or both change religious affiliation.
  • Roughly two- thirds of both married men and married women rate their marriages as “very happy.” This has remained mostly steady for the past thirty years.

Divorce

  • There has been a modest decline in the divorce rate since it reached an all- time high in 1980; there are now 18 divorces (rather than 22) per 1,000 married women.
  • The projected rate of divorcing still stands at around 50% - this represents the percentage of marriages (first and remarriage) entered into during a particular year that are projected to end in divorce or separation before one spouse dies.
  • Approximately 60- 67% of second marriages end in divorce, and about 74% of third marriages end in divorce.
  • About one- third of adults who have ever been married and are still living have experienced a divorce. This percentage rises to 46% for the baby boom generation.
  • Catholics are substantially less likely than Protestants to get divorced (25% versus 39%).
  • One’s chances of divorce are diminished by such factors as: older age, higher income, more education, having a religious affiliation, absence of divorce in family of origin, and having a child after marriage.
  • The highest percentage of divorces occurs within the first three years of marriage.

Cohabitation

  • Cohabitation (sexual partners sharing a household) has increased 1100% in forty years. Over 50% of first marriages are preceded by cohabitation.
  • Almost 40% of cohabiting households have children in them.

 

For further research on the state of marriage in the U.S. and its impact on society, see: