Knot yet
The latest data from Pew Research out this week reveals that an astonishing 25% of 40 year olds in the US have never been married, marking a record high share. In 2010, the corresponding figure was 20%, and if we go back to 1980, just 6% of 40 year olds had yet to tie the knot.
The data fits with the longer term trend in marriage — people have been getting married at a lower rate and generally later in their lives. Indeed, the typical age for men to say "I do" was just over 30, while women typically married a few months after their 28th birthday, according to the US Census Bureau. Both these ages have increased by around 5 years since the turn of the century. In 2000 the median age for men and women to get married was 26.8 and 25.1, respectively, and if you go back to the 1950s, women were typically getting married just after they turned 20.
Emerging adult
Exploring why marriage is increasingly put off is a complicated social question, but access to higher education has certainly played its part. With more people studying, the percentage of 21 year olds with full-time jobs has dwindled from 64% in 1980 to 39% in 2021, according to Pew Research.
Another explanation is that a new life stage "emerging adulthood" — when individuals are studying, leaving home for the first time, exploring their identity, travelling or just embarking on their careers — has gotten longer.
Shifting cultural norms around living with partners, increased economic independence for women, changing work patterns, a rise in the number of people who consider themselves "religiously unaffiliated" and an increase in the number of people living alone have also all contributed to the trend.
