Posted on 09/16/2026 9:48:38 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
The Institute for Family Studies (IFS) recently estimated that the gap between unmarried and married men under the age of 40 continues to widen—with 15 million more bachelors than husbands between the ages of 20 to 39 in 2025.
The gap has widened by 12.4 million since 2000, when the gap between married and unmarried stood at 2.6 million.
IFS also reports, according to a General Social Survey, 11 percent of young adults in the early 2000s said they were “not too happy.” That percentage is now at 26 percent. During the same period, the number of married men ages 20–39 dropped by 15 percent.
Leading the unhappiness charge are single men, who are either postponing or rejecting marriage, or not perceived as a suitable marriage partner by single women because of various societal changes.
This is a serious problem for American society.
In his book, “Men and Marriage,” (an expanded edition of his 1973 work “Sexual Suicide”) George Gilder wrote: “Men lust, but they don’t know what for; they wander, and lose track of the goal; they fight and compete, but they forget the prize; they spread seed but spurn the seasons of growth; they chase power and glory but miss the meaning of life.”
Brad Wilcox of IFS agrees with Gilder: “Such men are more likely to be lonely, prone to deaths of despair and unhappy. It’s never good for a society to have large numbers of unattached, dispirited, and unhappy young men.”
A Wall Street Journal article from last year titled, “American Women are Giving Up on Marriage,” touches on several reasons why women are not getting married—whether it be trouble finding a suitable man or choosing a career over marriage.
Disillusioned with the current state of what they perceive to be suitable and available men, they say they are more content with singleness than their male counterparts. A commonly heard complaint is that in their search of a suitable man to marry, they are only finding a world of “man-children.”
So, why has this happened? Why are there so many unmarried young men and why are women having a hard time finding a suitable partner in what would seemingly be an abundant harvest?
First, many of these young men have no idea of what it takes to be a husband or father because they had no one to model that for them. This is just another symptom of the breakdown of the family, a culture of divorce, and a society that has economically awarded single parent families while placing financial burdens on traditional two-parent families.
Secondly, especially among working class men, the jobs that would have traditionally provided for a family have either not kept up with inflation, or in some cases, simply disappeared. In addition, our educational system is no longer providing the needed training for these men to enter the workplace and succeed. Meanwhile, the number of men attending college, the ticket to good paying and stable jobs, continues to decrease.
Finally, numerous voices in our culture have sent a message that women can succeed without having a husband—“A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle,” as the saying goes. But when men are not marrying, there is a ripple effect that impacts all aspects of our society.
For example, according to the Centers for Disease Control, the percentage of children born outside of marriage has risen from 33.2 percent of all live births in 2000 to 39.5 percent in 2024. This means a much higher percentage of young people are growing up in single parent households. And single parent households are often more dependent upon government assistance, with boys who grow up without a father often ending up failing socially and economically.
Those numbers also indicate that we’re hurtling toward a demographic disaster. Married couples not only provide a nurturing environment for children but also are more likely to have children.
It is not that young men have given up on marriage. Pew Research reported in 2023 that 74 percent of teenage boys want to be married someday. The problem is that many have no internal road map or GPS to help them get there.
As a society, we need to equip these young men with the skills, personal discipline, and sense of purpose to make them “marriage material.” It is a time for us, as a society, to return to a time when men have purpose—to be faithful husbands, loving fathers, and good providers.
This is going to be a long process, and it will require a long-term societal investment in affirming healthy, traditional two-parent families with engaged fathers who model such discipline and purpose to their sons. Boys do not have a choice when it comes to the families they are born into, but adults can make the right choices to help them flourish and thrive.
Men, women, and our society will be much better off as a result.
Reality check of immigration enthusiasts: A lot of these mail order brides are gold diggers barely a notch above prostitutes rather than the sweet-natured traditional wives and mothers everyone hopes they would be. I've had several friends with buyer's remorse, one with a Chinese mail order bride, two others with Ukrainians. They aren't the panacea for the marriage problem lots of people claim that they are.
“Eddie, I want to talk to yooooooooooo!”
~~~~~~~~
HALF!!!!
The attitude in society these days (very much reinforced by movies and TV shows) is that any man who cheats on his wife or girlfriend is an amoral cad, whereas a woman who cheats on her husband or boyfriend is a misunderstood princess whose husband is an unworthy loser who doesn’t “understand her” or “fulfill her emotional needs”. Thus even adulterous women can win in marriage courts.
Seems only white men (and Asians?) under 6 feet tall are being deselected. Plenty of short Hispanic men fathering babies.
Many conservative pundits and pastors White Knight for such women. They blame men for the poor quality of women.
They say that men haven't inspired women to be better. That men need to MAN UP! and improve themselves, so they'll be worthy of women. Whereupon, presumably, women will happily become devoted, feminine, faithful and loving wives and mothers.
I suspect many (if not all) of these women with "useless" degrees actually find lucrative jobs with government, academia, NGOs, and even corporate HR departments.
I have a friend I recently told a joke that is funny as heck.
She got all indignant, standing on the proud pedestal of being a feminist.
Don’t know what happened to her.
She was damn cute, really cute, 30 years ago. Now?
The humorectomy was successful, which is what I guess she wanted.
It's how you can tell if a woman is a liberal.
These are very good.
“Many conservative pundits and pastors White Knight for such women. They blame men for the poor quality of women.”
It is those pundits and pastors that are part of the problem—and not a part of the solution.
Somebody needs to “man up” and deliver the bad news to women—women are the primary problem—90%+.
“Plenty of short Hispanic men fathering babies.”
Yup—social circle is critical.
Short men just need to avoid those social circles (online dating being the most obvious one) where the game is rigged for them to lose.
If short men could rule large empires throughout history over tall men they can suck it up and do what needs to be done to get women.
Painfully accurate!
“It started with The Pill, totally changed the whole dynamic”
.
Absolutely.
I was in my first year of college when my Sociology professor asked our huge class, “What development will change our society the most?”
I got it wrong...
The number one obstacle to being successful with women, is convincing yourself of reasons to not hit on them every time you get the urge to.
Why there is internet porn.
“She earns twice my best year now and it’s growing like crazy.”
My wife makes good money but banks it in 401’s. My intake comes from retirement from 4 different places and a lot of tax free money along with some business interests. All protected by a smart CPA.
wy69
There is no replacement for a real live woman, young males need to learn how to get them, and step number one is, walk across that room and strike up a conversation.
No we dont.
If the juice isnt worth the squeeze, we can invest in oirselves.
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