U.S. Marriage Rate Hits Historic Low
It’s too early to know the impact the coronavirus pandemic will have, but data shows significant shifts in the country’s marriage rate have occurred around major historical events.
By Gaby Galvin Staff Writer • April 29, 2020, at 12:11 p.m.

The U.S. marriage rate reached a historic low in 2018, according to federal data spanning more than a century.

Social and economic shifts in the U.S. are visible through the lens of the country's marriage rate, measured as the number of marriages per 1,000 people. That rate has fluctuated since the early 1900s, most notably around times of great historical significance, according to the report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

For example, the marriage rate reached 12 per 1,000 in 1929 – the advent of the Great Depression – before falling to 7.9 in 1932. It then began a sporadic but upward climb, reaching an all-time high of 16.4 as the country emerged from World War II in 1946. The marriage rate fluctuated for the most part until the early 1980s, the data shows.

From 1982 to 2009, marriage rates fell fairly steadily, and then hovered around 6.8 to 7 per 1,000 through 2017.


In 2018, the rate fell to 6.5 – the lowest level in the 118-year period covered by the new report and the lowest recorded since 1867, the first year for which federal government data on national marriage is available.

"Women's independence and gender equality is a huge factor in the long-term decline in marriage," says Philip Cohen, a sociology professor at the University of Maryland who researches family structure and inequality.

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People also are delaying marriage. Separate federal data shows that the median age at first marriage is about 30 for men and 28 for women, and that between 1978 and 2018, the share of adults between 18 and 34 who were married plummeted from 59% to 29%. A record share of younger people are expected to never marry at all, the CDC report notes.

A 2017 analysis from the Pew Research Center showed that 41% of adults who had never been married but indicated they may tie the knot in the future said financial instability was a major reason they were not yet married. About a quarter said they were not "ready to settle down."


Wendy Manning, co-director of the National Center for Family & Marriage Research at Bowling Green State University, says delaying marriage is unconcerning at a broad societal level. But, she says, a total decline in marriage altogether could have broad implications as people age, because caregiving duties for sick or older people typically fall to a spouse.

The CDC report also notes that marriage has been linked to better health and living longer.

READ: States With the Highest Divorce Rates in America

"The fear will be that declining marriage is bad for society, for people's health and well-being," Cohen says. "I think it's mostly the other way around – that is, the way our society is working, people are more likely to get married when things are going well for them. And so it may be an indicator of problems in society, but I don't think it's a cause of problems in society."

The coronavirus pandemic, which became a generation-defining moment in a matter of weeks, could have its own effect on the marriage rate in the U.S. in coming years – though it's too soon to know exactly how, Cohen and Manning say.


"We might have countervailing forces operating," Manning says. The economic uncertainty brought on by the virus, for example, may prompt some people to delay marriage and others to seek it.

And as couples postpone their weddings and isolated people refrain from meeting new people and dating, Cohen expects to see downward trends for marriages, births and divorces in the next year or so.

But just as the country saw plummets and spikes in marriage rates around major historical events in the 1930s and 1940s, "it's quite possible that if there's a rebound after this, we could see a jump up in marriage or other family formation events," Cohen says.

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