Is Cohabitation better than Marriage? Young Couples Prefer Cohabitation

It has been already known for some time that fewer and fewer individuals are willing to get married, and a new research just confirmed how much the marriage rate has dropped down in the last century. According to a new Family Profile from the National Center for Family and Marriage Research (NCFMR) at Bowling Green University, the marriage rate in the United States is continuing its decades-long downward slide, with fewer females than ever joining the matrimonial unit. The study found that women are also waiting much longer to walk down the aisle for the first time. The report, titled, "Marriage: More than a Century of Change," states that in 1920, the marriage rate was 92.3. Now, it has plummeted to 31.01, the lowest it has been in over a century. That equals roughly 31 marriages per 1,000 unmarried women. In other words, for every thousand unmarried women in the United States, 31 of those previously single women got married in the past year. Since 1970, the marriage rate has dropped by nearly 60 per cent. Dr. Susan Brown, co-director of the NCFMR, says that marriage these days is no longer compulsory; it is just an option for many. Increasingly, many partners opt for cohabitation and many others prefer to stay single. The age at first marriage for women and men is at a historic highpoint and has been steadily growing, says Dr. Wendy Manning, co-director of the Center. An average age of an American woman at first marriage is now about 27 years, the highest in more than a century, according to the NCFMR statement. As to US men, they wait until about 29 years of age to get married. Source: https://www.enotalone.com/article/26316.html