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It's bizarre because it's distinctly not happening. The number of married couples in the US has been trending up since the 1960s [1] and only very recently has
by XorNot 3y ago
It's bizarre because it's distinctly not happening. The number of married couples in the US has been trending up since the 1960s [1] and only very recently has shown a plateau.
Which is to say their doesn't seem to be any indication that "marriage is failing" i.e. there are less people in marriages. It's also notable that the rate of cohabitation has tripled over the last 20 years[2] (included because it's a worthwhile proxy for things which are long term relationships but might not be recognized as marriages).
Where I can point to fertility rates across the Western world falling to below replacement and say "yeah we've got a problem", the notable thing is that it seems thoroughly uncorrelated with people being in long term relationships. People might not have time for friends, but there are more committed relationships around then at any time in history - by the numbers.
[1] https://www.statista.com/statistics/183663/number-of-married-couples-in-the-us/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/183663/number-of-married...
[2] https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2019/09/unmarried-partners-more-diverse-than-20-years-ago.html https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2019/09/unmarried-par...
- pokepim 3y ago[dead]
- shubb 3y agoJust want to point out that with population growth, your stats show that over the past 20 years married couples per thousand population has gone from 202/1000 in 2001 to 185/1000 in 2022 which is a 10% decline.
- XorNot 3y agoNoticed that which is why I looked up the cohabitation data, since I'm not sure how "marriage" is being defined - over that same period cohabitation rates tripled. I suspect that accounts for a decent chunk of people not getting married, but still being in long-term relationships unless there's some evidence these are substantially different types of relationships (i.e. not intimate).
- scarmig 3y ago> married couples per thousand population has gone from 202/1000 in 2001 to 185/1000 in 2022 which is a 10% decline. This probably understates things, if anything; as you get older, you're more likely to get married, and America's population has been aging.
- marcusverus 3y ago> Which is to say their doesn't seem to be any indication that "marriage is failing" i.e. there are less people in marriages. Pew data shows that marriage is down 14% since 1990. https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2021/10/05/rising-share-of-u-s-adults-are-living-without-a-spouse-or-partner/ https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2021/10/05/rising-...