The decline in marriage

[LongTomH]

Yesterday, I had lunch with a group of friends, ages ranging from pre-boomer to Gen X. None of these people is married. I've noticed that, among my circle of friends, a very high percentage are single, frequently never married.

Do a Google search on 'marriage rates,' and you'll find a number of articles on the subject, most of them bemoaning the decline and speculating about the causes, many of them featuring charts like the ones below:



The number of young married adults 25-34 dropped from 55.1% in 2000 to 44.9% in 2009. The percentage who have never been married rose from 34.5% in 2000 to 46.3% in 2009.

What are the causes of the decline? Certainly the economic slowdown played a role; I've been reading for some time that young people were putting off marriage due to finances.

Also, I think a lot of young people, especially young women, are disillusioned about the institution of marriage. They've seen dysfunctional families and messy divorces.

What will be the economic effects? Usually it takes two incomes to purchase a house these days. I know of cohabiting couples who've purchased a house together; but, cohabiting couples tend to break up more frequently.

Maybe it's ironic for an old bachelor to be remarking on this; but, the statistics surprised even me.

[Warpy]

1. I think a better case can be made that artificially low wages

make younger people a lot less likely to commit to marriage and bringing children into the world. When you can barely feed yourself, you're going to be a lot less likely to want to watch your kids go hungry, too.

There was a similar drop during the 1930s.

You need to figure out which is the cart and which is the horse in cases like this.

[customerserviceguy]

2. Been there, done that, got the tee shirt

Married and divorced three times, now my lady and I are living together. No possibility of children to make "legitimate", and the financial stuff would get sticky; she wants to leave her estate to her niece and nephew, having never had children herself. Not a problem for me, we share things quite well. I'm not sure where you got your impression that cohabitating couples are more likely to break up than ones that either stay together, or marry and then divorce, but your mileage may vary.

I think people today are freed from a societal expectation that they must marry, surely freedom to marry includes the freedom to not do so as well. My three were all mistakes, and I wouldn't hesitate for a minute to tell a young person that it can be an expensive mistake that you will spend the rest of your life paying for in some cases.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

3. I see marriage as mostly a legal arrangement for the benefit of children.

And I'm sterile... so...

For me and my girlfriend it is a mutually touchy subject as both our previous relationships sort of disintegrated over the issue. My ex had some sort of corporate merger in mind where I would be dissolved into her world. Her ex wanted her to turn into a different person, plainly he didn't want to marry a tomboy.

If she were to decide at some point that she did want to marry, after all these years I wouldn't argue the point. But for the moment it isn't a discussion either of us really want to have.

Our parents have expressed some strong feelings on the subject though,

[jehop61]

4. Don't forget

It was shameful to have sex before marriage before the mid sixties. So we married. Glad we still are, but there were some harrowing years together before we grew up together.

[raccoon]

6. Thank you. Also, in those days it was shameful to have a child out of wedlock. nt

[PasadenaTrudy]

5. 49 and never married

Don't see any reason to. My bf and I are non-conformists!