A recent study from Barna reveals that fewer Americans are getting married today, but most still believe marriage is important and they want to get married someday.
According to Barna, only 46% of U.S. adults are currently married, down from two-thirds in 1950. The decline largely seems to be due to people waiting longer to marry. The average age for first marriage has risen since 1950. Men now marry at 30, on average, and women marry at age 28 – 29.
The good news is most unmarried adults still want to get married. Among Gen Z, 81% say they value marriage, and 78% hope to marry someday. So while cultural attitudes may be changing, marriage is a deeply desired goal for most Americans.
Barna also found that divorce rates have remained steady, with about 18% of adults reporting they’ve been divorced and more than half of divorced adults reporting that they have remarried.
One concerning trend is the growing acceptance of cohabitation. Barna noted that 58% of all adults—including 42% of practicing Christians—now say it’s “wise” to live together before marriage.
That’s troubling, because cohabitation creates relationships that are less happy and less healthy, and children with a married mother and father are less likely to live in poverty.
Married couples, on the other hand, report more satisfaction across the board than cohabiting couples, and marriage is also broadly connected with better health and wellbeing.
Family Council has written repeatedly about the rising percentage of Arkansans who have “never married.”
The U.S. Census Bureau’s 2010 American Community Survey found that 17% of men and 12.6% of women ages 35-44 had never married. By 2024, those percentages had increased to 25.6% of men and 18.7% of women.
Overall, married Arkansans dropped from 51% of the population in 2010 to 49.8% in 2024.
Cohabitation could be one explanation for the rising percentage of Arkansans who have never married, but the data isn’t clear.
Despite cultural changes, Americans—including young people—still believe marriage matters. That’s good news for Arkansas’ families and churches who understand that strong marriages are the key to building strong communities.
Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.
