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US marriages slump to record low
BBC News ^ | 14 December 2011

Posted on 12/14/2011 7:49:41 PM PST by MinorityRepublican

Where are Mr and Mrs Right?

Barely half of Americans - a record low - are currently married, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of Census data.

Just 51% of adult Americans are married, compared with 72% in 1960.

The median age of first marriage has also hit a new high, of 26.5 for brides and 28.7 for grooms.

Pew said the number of adults co-habitating, single-person households and single parents had meanwhile increased in recent decades.

The study found that 20% of adults today aged 18 to 29 are married, compared with 59% in 1960.

It is unclear whether they are delaying matrimony or abandoning it altogether.

The analysis also found the number of new marriages in the US had declined by five percentage points between 2009-10.

This may not necessarily have been caused by the economic downturn, since a similar trend has continued in Europe regardless of business cycles.

Pew, a nonpartisan think tank and polling organisation, found the percentage of those Americans who have been married at least once had declined as well - 72% in 2010, from 85% in 1960.

If the trend persists, in a few years less than half of Americans will be married, Pew said.

While Pew did not study reasons for the trend, it noted that the marriage rate for college-educated adults declined "far less" than among the less-educated.

A Pew survey in 2010 found that four out of 10 Americans believed marriage was becoming obsolete, but that 61% people who had never married would like to do so someday.

(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.co.uk ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society
KEYWORDS: marriage
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To: stylin19a
they became Mr and Ms Right now.

Nope....Mr. and Mr.,or Ms. and Ms.
21 posted on 12/14/2011 8:46:33 PM PST by gimme1ibertee ("Criticism......brings attention to an unhealthy state of things"-Winston Churchill)
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To: Chode

Cynical? I don’t think so. In California if you’re married and your wife gets pregnant from another man; even if you prove you are not the Daddy with a paternity test, YOU pay the child support for her child conceived while cheating on you with another man! Imagine the financial ruin created by this stupid liberal law! What a load of crap. Soon enough being the head of the household and being male (regardless of gender) will be a felony. The liberals created a war on males, and now society is deteriorating. Parents should discourage their sons (regardless of gender) from marriage at all costs. Cher, are you listening?


22 posted on 12/14/2011 8:47:27 PM PST by goron (communism)
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To: SoldierDad

Was married to the woman of my dreams for 23. Lost her to cancer. I’m a victim. I know my rights, I want free stuff too. You owe me. /s


23 posted on 12/14/2011 8:48:12 PM PST by 23 Everest (When seconds count. The police are just minutes away. 831 Bonnie)
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To: Clock King

“The mess that was started in the Black community is now spreading to the rest of America.”

That started years ago, and there is no doubt in my mind that it was a driving force behind welfare reform. As an increasing number of whites played the “cash for kids” game, the costs would be unbearable - so there is a time limit on benefits, and a lower white AND black birth rate (which in turn led to the open borders policy, and so on and so on...).


24 posted on 12/14/2011 8:48:32 PM PST by kearnyirish2
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To: MinorityRepublican

Why buy a cow when milk is free?


25 posted on 12/14/2011 8:56:43 PM PST by Age of Reason
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To: goron
The worst financial decision a single male can make is to sign a marriage contract..

Divorces are weighed heavily in the woman's favour whether or not she was the one that committed fraud, adultery, or wanted the divorce. Women can claim abuse without proof and the man is automatically guilty in the eyes of the law. Marriage is in most cases, a losing proposition for the man. I sorely miss a female companion but I cannot risk being financially ruined with another failure.

It reminds me of an airline pilot I knew that was living on a one acre plot in a mobile home, driving a ten year old car. He told me he had married three times and another would make his take home personal income nil...his entire salary of the upper $100,000 was dedicated to alimony and child support.

26 posted on 12/14/2011 8:57:24 PM PST by vetvetdoug
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To: goron

“In California if you’re married and your wife gets pregnant from another man; even if you prove you are not the Daddy with a paternity test, YOU pay the child support for her child conceived while cheating on you with another man!”

I believe some other states still have laws like that; they are criminal & indefensible. Kinda puts stoning for adultery in a different light, no?


27 posted on 12/14/2011 9:04:43 PM PST by kearnyirish2
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To: SoldierDad

I think you used a good criteria for finding a spouse and I am more than sure that you used more than just the heart and hormones.


28 posted on 12/14/2011 9:06:28 PM PST by Niuhuru (The Internet is the digital AIDS; adapting and successfully destroying the MSM host.)
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To: NorthStarStateConservative

I certainly agree wiht you in that respect. Women these days, at least a lot, prefer ot marry and be taken care of and then take hte man for all he is worth and then go on to another victim who will end up being played. No wonder next ot no men want anything to do with marriage.


29 posted on 12/14/2011 9:09:03 PM PST by Niuhuru (The Internet is the digital AIDS; adapting and successfully destroying the MSM host.)
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To: kearnyirish2

I think that evne the most devout liberal does not want their kids coming home pregnant and not married or even sure who the Daddy is.


30 posted on 12/14/2011 9:10:56 PM PST by Niuhuru (The Internet is the digital AIDS; adapting and successfully destroying the MSM host.)
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To: vetvetdoug

Males in California realize that if you’re married for 10 years, and she wants a divorce after having another man’s children while married to you; you WILL pay her alimony for the rest of her life - on TOP of the child support for the children she had while cheating on you when you were married.

10 years = the rest of her life you owe her even if you remarry, she still gets a monthly cut of your income.. UNLESS she gets remarried, and then you’re off the hook. Under 10 years of marriage only reduces the support by half the marriage time. Thus, a male married for 9 years to a cheating woman will owe 4-1/2 years of alimony, plus child support on her illegitimate children she got while cheating on you during her marriage. Why the hell is anyone surprised at this decline in marriage? A single male can knock up multiple married women and never pay a cent in child support. Married males (regardless of gender) without a per-nuptial agreement, are the most financially vulnerable, victimized, and gullible people in society today.

I beg Cher to get this information to her son and save Chaz Bono from the worst financial decision in his life if he is even considering (even heterosexual) marriage. It’s just not worth complete financial destruction.


31 posted on 12/14/2011 9:14:31 PM PST by goron (communism)
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To: SoldierDad

I was in the minority until a year ago. 33 years.


32 posted on 12/14/2011 9:18:57 PM PST by Lobbyist (capitalist)
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To: goron

I dunno reading your whine here I kinda side with her.


33 posted on 12/14/2011 9:22:51 PM PST by artichokegrower
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To: Niuhuru

“I think that evne the most devout liberal does not want their kids coming home pregnant and not married or even sure who the Daddy is.”

I think that was true for long time, but at this point the “devout liberals” have themselves either been married several times or had several children out of wedlock (often with numerous mates). To some extent having it continue in the next generation “normalizes” it for them.


34 posted on 12/14/2011 9:27:53 PM PST by kearnyirish2
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To: artichokegrower

Well then artichokegrower its damn good news for you that Chaz Bono is still single? You go girl!


35 posted on 12/14/2011 9:30:27 PM PST by goron (communism)
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To: Niuhuru

“Women these days, at least a lot, prefer ot marry and be taken care of and then take hte man for all he is worth and then go on to another victim who will end up being played. No wonder next ot no men want anything to do with marriage.”

The worst part is the public outcry about it; the princesses aren’t being tended to. I have family members who will probably die childless spinsters, and I feel for them, but even they are smart enough to understand the dynamics at work here. This situation has deteriorated to the point where otherwise-respectable women are simply trying to get knocked up as their clocks continue ticking - fellows beware!


36 posted on 12/14/2011 9:34:15 PM PST by kearnyirish2
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To: kearnyirish2

These days decent women can’t win. They really can’t win, when in the past things used to be pretty easy. All you had ot do was be decent and be good and you got a husband easy enough. Now tarts are getting the ring far more easily than ever and decent women simply cannot win in many respects.


37 posted on 12/14/2011 9:52:17 PM PST by Niuhuru (The Internet is the digital AIDS; adapting and successfully destroying the MSM host.)
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To: kearnyirish2

Good point, mainly so they don’t feel bad about themselves.


38 posted on 12/14/2011 9:53:09 PM PST by Niuhuru (The Internet is the digital AIDS; adapting and successfully destroying the MSM host.)
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To: goron

I wonder if whether or not hte dowry system, plus class stratified marriages will make a comeback when men get tired of marrying women who dont’ have as much as they do and end up milking them for all their worth, then leaving them to marry the man they really wanted to.


39 posted on 12/14/2011 9:55:44 PM PST by Niuhuru (The Internet is the digital AIDS; adapting and successfully destroying the MSM host.)
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To: GOP Poet

“Why bother with marriage until they might want a kid.”

they don’t even get married to have kids!!! or do you not watch Muary? I was shocked the first time I saw that! Nineteen men tested and she STILL did not know who the baby’s daddy was.

What a freaking cesspool.


40 posted on 12/14/2011 10:02:34 PM PST by Morgana (Rent this Space....Cheap)
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