The amount of U.S. marriage ceremonies was at its highest in the 1980s in the 1980s, when nearly 2.5 million weddings were registered every year. Since then, the number of couples getting married has been declining slowly. Today, only around two million weddings occur annually, which is a decrease of nearly half one million from when they were at their highest.
In the end, just a quarter of the adults in the U.S. say they’re living with a partner. It’s the lowest proportion ever recorded and is lower than the 70 percent figure of 1967.
What’s the reason for this? Are marriages becoming less important? What are the reasons to care?
The rates of marriage are also dropping.
The decline in marriage rates is more pronounced given the growth rate of population growth in the U.S. population is taken into consideration. In actual fact, the rate of marriages is the lowest it has been in at least 150 years.
The following figure shows the number of marriages for 1,000 persons over the past century and the number of marriages per fifty percent. It doesn’t matter if it’s the first or second wedding. The rate is simply a measure of the number of weddings that occurred in the context of population.
In the latter part of 1800, approximately 9 out of 1,000 couples were married every year, following a rise from the beginning of 1900 until World War I. The marriage rate fell during the Great Depression when fewer people could afford to start families. The number of couples getting married soared after the close of World War II as service members returned home looking to marry and have children.
However, since the beginning of the 1980s, the rate of marriage has been steadily declining until it reached a plateau in 2009 with a figure of 7.7 per 1,000.
A global trend
It’s not only in the U.S. where this is taking place.
The United Nations gathered data from more than 100 countries. Its data show how the rate of marriage changed between 1970 and 2005. Rates of marriage fell by four-fifths of them.
The marriage rate in Australia, for instance, dropped to 9.3 marriages per 1,000 between 1970 and 5.6 as of 2005. The rate in Egypt dropped by 9.3 to 7.2. In Poland, the drop was between 8.6 to 6.5.
The decline was seen across all countries, rich and poor. The drop was not due to geography since one of the biggest drops was observed within Cuba (13.4 from 5); however, the largest increase occurred on the nearby Island of Jamaica (4.9 up to 8.7).
In the countries that saw decreases in marriage rates, the average dropped by 8.2 marriages per 1000 to 5.2, which is even lower than what is happening in the U.S. now.
Why is this drop happening?
The variety of the culprits is very extensive.
Some blame the widening U.S. income and the growing gap in wealth. Others blame the decrease in adherence to religion or point to the rise in the higher education and earnings of women, which makes them more selective on who they will marry. Others concentrate on the rising debt of students and the rising cost of housing that forces couples to put off getting married. Some believe that marriage is a traditional, old-fashioned tradition that is not necessary anymore.
However, since this is a pattern that’s happening all over the world across a variety of countries that have very differing incomes, religious beliefs, and social and educational aspects, it’s difficult to pinpoint only one culprit.
Don’t blame the government.
Furthermore, this decline in marriages isn’t due to adverse legal or policy-related changes. Governments around the world continue to offer incentive programs and safeguards to promote marriage.
For instance, the U.S. federal government has more than 1,000 laws that allow for special modifications depending on the status of marriage. Many of these modifications permit couples who are married to enjoy preferential tax benefits as well as greater retirement benefits and also get around rules regarding inheritance.
In addition, the legalization of same-sex marriage all over the world has increased the number of couples capable of entering into legally approved unions.
Although the legalization of same-sex marriages has increased the number of weddings, the increase isn’t sufficient to stop the trend of decline.
Could it be a transition to cohabiting?
Another common explanation to explain why fewer people are marrying is the fact that more couples are choosing to live informally, a process known as cohabitation.
Indeed, the proportion of those who live with an individual rather than marrying has increased over the years. In 1970, just half of one percent of adults had cohabiting within the U.S. The current figure has risen to 7.5 percent.
However, this pattern fails to fully explain the story of declining marriage rates. When we add the percentage of adults who are married and those who cohabit, the picture still shows a strong downward trend. In the 1960s, 70% of U.S. adults were either cohabiting or married. The most recent statistics show that less than 60 percent of adults live together in a cohabiting or marital relationship.
