Married couples in less than half of US households

hannikan · May 2011

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=%2Fn%2Fa%2F2011%2F05%2F28%2Fnational%2Fa120003D10.DTL

I guess we're in the minority now.

Mrs.BoomBoom · May 2011

I can totally see that. I think less than half of the people I know are married (including family and my mom's friends)

hannikan · May 2011

Yeah almost none of my friends from college are married.

Mrs.BoomBoom · May 2011

Most of my peer group are married, but a lot of the older people are not, and not many who are younger than 35

Passanie · May 2011

Interesting. I'm not sure I get the shrinking labor disparity part. Are they saying that because women can get better jobs they don't need to rely on men as much?

No one in my immediate circle of friends is married (though some have been in the past), with the exception of the couple getting a divorce.

hannikan · May 2011

Passanie:
Interesting. I'm not sure I get the shrinking labor disparity part. Are they saying that because women can get better jobs they don't need to rely on men as much?

Yes, I think so. And I think they're saying that they aren't pushing their boyfriends to marry them as much as in the past partly for that reason. They're more likely to live together, esp in their 20's. People are getting married later partly because women can support themselves more now so there are fewer married people in their 20's.

I also know a lot of the men in Drew's family (his uncles) are not married either. Not sure why that is.

A lot of people in retirement homes live alone because their spouse died.

Celyn · May 2011

I'm at a strange stage in my life where for the first time that I can think of everyone in my non-familial social circle is married, but I was really surprised when I planned my 20-yr reunion and found out that a significant number of my classmates never married. In my immediate family only 2 of the 4 of us kids are married. Both of the unmarried sibs are in long term relationships, one with a thought toward getting married eventually (they've been together 5 yrs) and one with plans not to marry (they've been together 7 yrs and just bought a house together).

RoxysMama · May 2011

I feel like its opposite for me. In my direct circle of friends no one else is married (then again I am 23 so not a HUGE surprise) but within the last year I feel like 6 or 7 or girls in my graduating class from high school got married and few friends from college got married after graduation. No babies yet but I feel like its been a lot of weddings. But DH's friends (30yrs) are not married. We are going to his close friends wedding in June. All his other friends are single.

Mrs.BoomBoom · May 2011

RoxysMama:
I feel like its opposite for me. In my direct circle of friends no one else is married (then again I am 23 so not a HUGE surprise) but within the last year I feel like 6 or 7 or girls in my graduating class from high school got married and few friends from college got married after graduation. No babies yet but I feel like its been a lot of weddings. But DH's friends (30yrs) are not married. We are going to his close friends wedding in June. All his other friends are single.

Yeah, we had a HUGE explosion of weddings in DH's friend group when they all turned 30...like 15 weddings in 4 years. It seems like almost everyone went from single to married at the same time...it was a challenge keeping names current from our save the dates to our place cards for the wedding. Now there are very few within his group not married (and those are mostly either in a committed relationship or divorced)

hannikan · May 2011

Yeah what you've experienced is still somewhat common, Roxy, usually just with people a little older. And like it was saying it varies by region (in Utah if you're not married by 23 you're an "old maid"). But if you average it nationally, in comparison to the 1960's (and a lesser degree even the 1990's) fewer people are choosing to marry that young. When I got engaged 2 of my other friends did within the same month! One was from college and one was from high school. We were 26/27 then.

Married couples in less than half of US households

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