Blog 10: Marriage Rates Declining in Developed Countries

It has been noticed in sever articles that the rate of marriage has decreased along with the age of first marriage increasing. The average age of marriage now is between 26 and 29 years of age. The percentage of adults married has dropped from 72 percent in 1960 to 51 percent today in the United States. Many adults are taking the cohabitation route before getting married. They view this as a chance to get to know their mates ways better when it comes to how he/she handles finances, confrontation, and housework. For many this period of cohabitating ends relationships or at least postpones marriage because things began to come to light that one mate may not be able to deal with. In Mexico they are debating on giving their residents the option of a trial marriage that would include a two-year contract. This would guarantee couples to stay together for at least two years and make the divorce process much faster and easier. Two other statistics acknowledged that influence marriage rates are education and race. 64 percent of college graduates are married versus 47 percent of high school graduates, compared to both levels being equal fifty years ago. These statistics partially influenced by educated women wanting to marry educated men, and educated men wanting to be educated so that they can better provide for their families in the future. As for race, 55 percent of whites are married, 48 percent of Hispanics, and 31 percent of Blacks.

There are issues with marriage rates all around the world. Some countries are trying to come up with ways of increasing marriage rates, such as Mexico, while others encourage or at least accept cohabitation. Marriage rates around the world could increase if more countries came up with ways of encouraging marriage, but these ideas must not eventually lead to higher divorce rates because that would cause another global problem. I don’t see an issue with adults waiting later to marry once they are financially stable, I actually think that is very smart. The idea of cohabitating to be able to see your mate’s flaws before marriage is ok, but I wouldn’t encourage it because there are other ways to see these. Many preachers encourage marriage counseling before getting married because this is where you are able to talk about things such as each person’s views on handling finances and communicating to prevent or solve confrontation. . So there are several ways to address the issue of low marriage rates without leading to higher divorce rates and/or cohabitation rates.

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