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.
Men are notvafraid of successful women. They dont like being condescended to by them. Corporate and government dont hire whit men.
[...] 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.Since men and women allegedly "pair off" with members of their same age-cohort (with an insignificant age gap of approx. 2 years - i.e., women marry men about two years older than themselves), and since there are approx. as many men as women in any given age-bracket, the above statements should also be true for women. But the article frames this as solely a problem of men.The gap has widened by 12.4 million since 2000, when the gap between married and unmarried [men!] stood at 2.6 million.
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.”1. Overgeneralization. 2. Overly flowery but essentially useless and unfalsifiable claims. 3. Doesn't the same apply to women? If not: Why not? 4. Most men damn well know what the goal is: More men than women in that age-bracket want marriage.
Leading the unhappiness charge are singleThere! Fixed it!menwomen, who are either postponing or rejecting marriage, or not perceived as a suitable marriage partner by singlewomenmen becauseof various societal changesthey're skanks.
“American Women are Giving Up on Marriage,” touches on several reasons why women are not getting married—whetherThere! Fixed it again!it be trouble finding a suitable manbecause they have unrealistic criteria / are fixated on only the top 10% of all men or choosing a career over marriage (= their own fault for willfully making the wrong choice).
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. [...] 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.Any discussion of bastardy is MEANINGLESS if it doesn't disaggregate by RACE!
Regards,
Not to mention that they are buried up to their eyeballs in student loan debt. Marry one of them, and that’s your debt too.
That’s what I tell the young guys
Go to the bar
Met some chick that hates you
Buy her a house, then
Give her half you pay for the next twenty years.
I just saved you 50K in lawyer fees
“It was always the women, and above all the young ones, who were the most bigoted adherents of the Party, the swallowers of slogans, the amateur spies…” — George OrwellRegards,
That canard is as pernicious as the "Islamophobe!" accusation.
Men aren't "afraid" of women who are more successful (financially / career-wise) than they are. Rather, such women reject lower-status males from the get-go (hypergamy)! Men have "gotten wise" to women's rampant hypergamy (which used to be kept in check by society-enforced assortative coupling) and are therefore often avoiding such women from the start.
In 60-70% of all divorces, it's the woman who files for divorce. Give that woman a college degree, and it rises to 70-80%. Give that woman a significantly higher income than her spouse, and it skyrockets to 80-90%!
Regards,
I suspect you watched this movie as well . The Welfare model eventually collapses. Then it is back to actual productive people in charge of actually producing things . Look how far freedom in America has carried it over the rest. Even though America has been slowly losing its freedom it has set the model for someone else to follow eventually even if America fails to recover. Evolution is ruthless. It only cares about the winners
>> No, the problem isn’t the females.
wrong, the females are indeed the problem
I still see white sweat hogs with BLM posters in their car windows. so there are a few women still trying...
Yes. I noticed what was not mentioned in the article.
lol. summary: men bad, women good.
what complete rot.
Tired of finding out the child is not theirs.
Regards,
women don’t come with a carfax report and they can’t ever be recalled....
Reason? Modern American Women - and the courts that will rape the man on divorce.
Florida has a 50-50 split option...
LOL, That's a great idea.
A psychiatric exam, medical and drug history, mileage, mood swing indicator, PMS indicator, honesty indicator, hot/crazy chart position.
“to be faithful husbands, loving fathers, and good providers.”
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/cUO6nwUG7gk
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Q0rsHuxdmFY
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/YMauu3tfSeA
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/gonJy_rdm44
The list goes on.
As a culture in America and I think in the West in general, we spent the last decades demonizing men, mocking men, rewarding misandry with cultural applause then expect our male children to be happy breadwinners/wage slaves for harpy females.
Yeah, right. I’m well past any of that but I dang sure would not be signing up for that crap.
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“
lol.
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