July 25, 23

NEWS / Record-high number of 40-year-old Americans never married – study

A record number of 40-year-old Americans had never been married, according to a recently published study from the Pew Research Center. The study shows that 25% of Americans aged 40 had never been married in 2021, a significant jump from the previous 2010 figure of 20%. The number of 40-year-olds having ever been married has been on the decline since 1980, a year in which only 6% of that age group reported having never tied the knot. Moreover, the study demonstrated that only 22% of the never-married 40-year-olds were cohabiting with a romantic partner. The decline coincides with a significant drop in marriage, first among Baby Boomers (born 1940s-1960s), then Generation Xers (1960s-1980s), then Millennials (1980s-1990s), and finally Gen-Z’s (1990s-2010s). The number of unmarried individuals at the age of 40 had been growing progressively with each next generation. This trend reversed the previous trend visible between 1910 and 1980 of the number of unmarried individuals aged 40 going down from 16% in 1910 to 6% in 1960. The data in the 2023 study varied based on demographic features. Men were more likely to have never married than women. African Americans were also more likely to have never married than Hispanic Americans, Caucasians, and Asian Americans. The likelihood of having never been married at the age of 40 was inversely correlated with education level, so the higher the education level of an individual, the more likely it was that the individual had been married. If one was to compare the number of 40-year-olds who have been married at one point in their lives in 1980 and 2021, one can notice that the number was significantly higher in 1980. This is despite the fact that the number of 40-year-olds with Bachelor’s degree was significantly higher in 2021 than in 1980 (39% vs 18%). Pew Research Center senior fellow Richard Fry cautioned that one cannot assume that if someone never married by age 40, they never will. In fact, he noted that about a quarter of the never-married 40-year-olds in 2001 got married by 2021, a trend that does not appear to be changing. You can check out the study at the following link: https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/06/28/a-record-high-share-of-40-year-olds-in-the-us-have-never-been-married/