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Monday, December 18th, 2023

A record-high share of 40-year-olds in the U.S. have never been married

Author:     Richard Fry
Source:     Pew Research Center
Publication Date:     JUNE 28, 2023
 Link: A record-high share of 40-year-olds in the U.S. have never been married
Stephan:  

In the 1970s when I was a part of several academic futurist research groups the big issue on all of them was over-population and lack of resources. So much for academic futurism. The reality is we do not have a sustainable birthrate. That is more people die than are born. Women are also having children later than their mothers did, and fewer children. More than that as this report describes, men are marrying later, and a quarter of them haven’t married at all by the time they are 40. White evangelicals are hysterical about immigrants replacing them when, in fact, there are millions more open jobs than there are workers. We need immigrants to maintain our economic system. And did you know that 44.8% of Fortune 500 companies were started by immigrants or their children. You probably work for an immigrant or their child and your wellbeing depends on their creativity and ingenuity.

Marriage has long been a central institution in the lives of Americans. In 1980, just 6% of 40-year-olds had never been married. But people born from the 1960s onward have been increasingly delaying marriage, and a growing share are forgoing it altogether.

The 2021 data marks a new milestone in that decadeslong trend.

While many unmarried 40-year-olds are living with a romantic partner, most are not. In 2022, 22% of never-married adults ages 40 to 44 were cohabiting.

The share of 40-year-olds in 2021 who had never married varied by the following demographic characteristics:

  • Gender: A higher share of men than women had never married.
  • Race and ethnicity: Black 40-year-olds were much more likely to have never married than Hispanic, White and Asian 40-year-olds.
  • Education level: 40-year-olds without a four-year college degree were more likely to have never married than those who had completed at least a bachelor’s degree. One-third of those with a high school diploma or less had never married, compared with 26% of those with some college education and 18% of those with a bachelor’s degree or more education.
  • The overall decrease […]
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