Is Marriage Making a Come Back? Scholars Share Some Good News
Nearly all indicators on marriage and married birthrates in America have been moving in the wrong direction over the last few decades. Marriage rates have been declining steadily, 54% overall since 1900. Matrimony has declined markedly among younger adults since 1980. Married births dropped precipitously over this same time compared to growth in births from single and cohabiting mothers. Additionally, cohabitation shot up over the last 40 years, with a shocking 80% of marriages today being preceded by cohabitation.
People are also waiting longer to marry, with age at first marriage increasing to 31 for men and 29 for women. These numbers were 23 for men and 20 for women in 1950.
This bad news seems to be turning round, according to important marriage scholars.
Brad Wilcox, a chaired professor of sociology and director of the National Marriage Project at University of Virginia writes in The Atlantic, saying that marriage “[shows] new signs of resilience.”
Professor Wilcox explains that “reports of marriage’s demise are exaggerated.” Other scholars have noted that it “is not naive optimism to believe that we are on the threshold of a marriage renaissance.”
Wilcox explains, “Rather quietly, the post-60s family revolution appears to have ended.” This is most notably indicated by twin facts. Divorce has been declining for some years, and this has been well-established. More recently, the share of children living with two married parents is up.
In a companion story to Wilcox’s Atlantic essay, his Institute for Family Studies demonstrates these trends.
The divorce rate, since the early 1980s, has fallen by nearly 40%. Wilcox remarks much of this improvement “has happened in just the past 15 years.”
The improving trend in children being born to and living with a married mother and father is more recent to be sure. Wilcox explains, “After falling for more than 40 years beginning in the late 1960s, the share of children living in married families bottomed out at 64% in 2012 before rising to 66% in 2024.”
Married births have also risen among historically challenged racial groups. Wilcox explains “the proportion of black children being raised in a married-parent family rose from 33% in 2012 to 39% in 2024.”
Wilcox explains the crucial benefits, saying,
Marriage’s comeback is good news for society: Children raised in two-parent homes are much more likely to graduate from college than those raised in other families, and less likely to be incarcerated. Kids who don’t live with both of their married parents are far more likely to be depressed than those raised in intact families.
He adds,
After surveying the research on child well-being, the economist Melissa Kearney concluded that the “evidence is clear, even if the punchline is uncomfortable: children are more likely to thrive – behaviorally and academically, and ultimately in the labor market and adult life – if they grow up with the advantages of a two-parent home.”
Parents who are married increase these benefits for adults and children in innumerable ways. These facts explain why it is wise to celebrate notable, positive increases in marriage in our culture today. They result in higher levels of human and societal well-being.
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