Study Finds Marriage Rate Down

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Study Finds Marriage Rate Down

Special Report - August 7, 2007
The United States remains the most marriage-friendly nation in the West, but the percentage of Americans who choose to marry is continuing to decline while rates of cohabitation are increasing, according to the latest report from the National Marriage Project at Rutgers University. “More Americans today are living together, marrying at older ages or not at all, and rearing children in cohabiting or solo parent households,” writes co-author David Popenoe in the study entitled The State of Our Unions, 2007.

Popenoe says that the drop in marriage rates in the United States reflects a broader shift away from the institution of marriage in all of western culture. Between the mid 1990s to early 2000s, the marriage rate dropped by 28 percent in New Zealand, 22 percent in Spain, and 24 percent in the United States while the rates of cohabitation and out-of-wedlock births increased. “America is still the most marrying of Western nations, but nevertheless we are caught up in the prevailing trends of modernity that lead toward an ever weakening institution of marriage,” Popenoe says in the report.

As a major factor in decline of marriage, the study points to “secular individualism,” which is characterized by the abandonment of religion and an increased emphasis on individual autonomy and acceptance of non-traditional lifestyles. Aside from a cultural shift towards secularism, the study cites the changing views among young people of the value of marriage as a determining factor in the future welfare of the institution. On the positive side, the number of divorces has declined slightly since its peak in the early 1980s, according to Popenoe. Even so, the study says the declining divorce rate may be directly connected to a spike in cohabitation—divorce is decreasing because less couples are marrying in the first place.

The “marriage gap” is another trend the study cites as weakening marriage in the United States. This trend refers to the higher divorce rates among the less educated, often poorer population. According to the study, 16.5 percent of college educated women divorced within 10 years of marriage, compared with 46 percent of women who did not complete high school. Even though more educated women are more likely to marry and stay married, they are less likely to bear children. In 2004, 24 percent of college-educated women ages 40-44 were childless, compared with 15 percent of women who never finished high school.

As a solution to the decline in marriage, the study’s authors suggest reemphasis on the value of marriage in society. “The empirical evidence is now strong and persuasive that a good marriage enhances personal happiness, economic success, health and longevity,” the report states. “This evidence should become a regular part of our educational programs and our public discourse.”