Image source: Superfine Bakery
A few weeks ago the Pew Foundation released a report discussing changes in social trends related to marriage. Of course, the fact that fewer adults are getting married is not news, but in there report on the Pew Research Center's website, the authors also discuss the reasons why this is happening and what the public thinks of these trends (as well as some very interesting data graphics, including a national map of the "marriage market," which can be found here).
The never-been-married rate is at a historic high (as determined by census data from 2012), with one in five adults ages 25 and older having never entered the institution of marriage. The median age at which people are first getting married is now 27 for women and 29 for men (up from 20 and 23, respectively, in 1960). In terms of whether prioritizing marriage is important to society, a survey conducted by Pew showed that people are almost evenly split on this issue: 46% of survey respondents thought prioritizing marriage and having kids made society better off, while 50% thought that having other priorities made society just as well off. The percentage choosing the latter (other priorities) is significantly higher for young adults, versus older adults: implying a shifting social trend in views towards marriage.
Half of the never-married set says they would like to eventually get married. It is in questioning the never-marrieds about what they look for in a potential spouse, that we discover that stereotypes about the desirable characteristics each gender wants have not changed along with the shifting demographics. Women say the most important trait is a steady job (78% of survey respondents), while men say that finding a spouse who has the same ideas about raising children is the most important (62%). Without extrapolating too much, this suggests that women still desire a man who is the breadwinner, and men want a spouse who will take care of kids the way they want (of course, it's possible an increasing percentage of men in this age group want their kids raised in a way that is compatible with their wife working full-time, but given the survey data presented by Pew this is impossible to know). It would also be nice to know how the percentage of men rating a steady job as a very important characteristic in a future spouse has changed over time. It's currently 46%, which seems likely to be more than what males of the 1960s thought, but this comparison is also not presented.
Again, looking within the never-been-married set, there is a large discrepancy between males and females when controlling for post-graduate degrees: women outnumber men by a significant amount. For every 100 never-been-married women with post-graduate degrees, there are only 77 men with similar educational backgrounds. For men and women with just bachelor's degrees, this comparison is more equal (102 men for every 100 women). Hopefully, these highly educated never-been-married women are okay with marrying men who do not have the same educational credentials as them (28% of women in Pew's survey said it was very important their potential spouse has as least as much education as them, but we don't know the breakdown in this response level across educational background).
The never-been-married rate is at a historic high (as determined by census data from 2012), with one in five adults ages 25 and older having never entered the institution of marriage. The median age at which people are first getting married is now 27 for women and 29 for men (up from 20 and 23, respectively, in 1960). In terms of whether prioritizing marriage is important to society, a survey conducted by Pew showed that people are almost evenly split on this issue: 46% of survey respondents thought prioritizing marriage and having kids made society better off, while 50% thought that having other priorities made society just as well off. The percentage choosing the latter (other priorities) is significantly higher for young adults, versus older adults: implying a shifting social trend in views towards marriage.
Half of the never-married set says they would like to eventually get married. It is in questioning the never-marrieds about what they look for in a potential spouse, that we discover that stereotypes about the desirable characteristics each gender wants have not changed along with the shifting demographics. Women say the most important trait is a steady job (78% of survey respondents), while men say that finding a spouse who has the same ideas about raising children is the most important (62%). Without extrapolating too much, this suggests that women still desire a man who is the breadwinner, and men want a spouse who will take care of kids the way they want (of course, it's possible an increasing percentage of men in this age group want their kids raised in a way that is compatible with their wife working full-time, but given the survey data presented by Pew this is impossible to know). It would also be nice to know how the percentage of men rating a steady job as a very important characteristic in a future spouse has changed over time. It's currently 46%, which seems likely to be more than what males of the 1960s thought, but this comparison is also not presented.
Again, looking within the never-been-married set, there is a large discrepancy between males and females when controlling for post-graduate degrees: women outnumber men by a significant amount. For every 100 never-been-married women with post-graduate degrees, there are only 77 men with similar educational backgrounds. For men and women with just bachelor's degrees, this comparison is more equal (102 men for every 100 women). Hopefully, these highly educated never-been-married women are okay with marrying men who do not have the same educational credentials as them (28% of women in Pew's survey said it was very important their potential spouse has as least as much education as them, but we don't know the breakdown in this response level across educational background).
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