Though marriage was once a steppingstone to economic stability, young adults now see financial stability as a prerequisite for marriage. According to a recent Pew survey, more than a quarter of those who say they want to marry someday, say they haven’t because they are not financially secure.

If you go back a generation or two, couples would get married and build their financial security together. Today they want to be financially secure before they take the plunge.

The retreat from marriage can partially be because of changing gender roles. Also, the decline can be attributed to the country’s deepening socioeconomic divide: Until a few decades ago, marriage was mostly an economic equation with men earning the money to support a family while the women were homemakers. Today many women want to have careers.

According to Pew Research Center, educated, high-income people are still marrying at high rates, according to economists and demographers. The unmarried seem to be among the less educated (lower-income earning), blacks and the young. And men are more likely than women to remain unmarried.

 

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