Birth rates for older singles have dipped as a result of the Great Recession, but they could easily resume their upward trend once the economy improves.īirths to unmarried women are largely unplanned. Though we’ve made great strides in reducing births to teens (most of which are outside marriage), the problem of unwed births has moved up the age scale. Births outside marriage are the main driver behind the growth of single parent families in America (shown below) and represent just over 40 percent of all births (and over 50 percent for women under the age of 30). One reason that people are delaying marriage is because more Americans (particularly women) are getting post-secondary degrees.ĭespite forgoing marriage, young Americans are not forgoing parenthood. Marrying at a later age is associated with better and longer lasting marriages. Part of this is because men and women are marrying later – and this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. The proportion of Americans who are married has dropped from 72 percent in 1960 to 51 percent in 2010. Though most young Americans say they hope to marry someday, their behavior tells a different story. New opportunities for women, declining economic prospects for men, greater access to contraception and abortion, and changing social norms have transformed the family. Over the course of the next two weeks, we will be hearing from Sawhill and series of scholars in the field about the future of family formation in the United States.įamilies in America look very different now than they did just fifty years ago. Generation Unbound: Drifting into Sex and Parenthood without Marriage This piece is the first in a series of blog posts on Isabel Sawhill’s new book
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