In a blog entry at the Black Snob, editor Danielle Belton tackles a recent study that says the population of married couples has dropped since the 1960s. She says that most African Americans may feel the need to achieve a certain amount of financial security before making the leap, which is one reason the numbers are so low.
Pew recently released a study announcing that the United States married population has dropped considerably since the 1960s! Today, of people 18 years old and up, only 51 percent are married. But in 1960, that number was more like 72 percent. While I'm sure (very sure) some folks will use this to clutch their pearls and start screaming about feminists or whatever, the reality is … who gets married out of high school anymore?
Because that's what they used to do in 1960[s].
My mother, repeatedly, told myself and my sisters none of us needed to get married until we were 30. I still got married at 25 anyway (and saw that crash n' burn), but my sisters are still counted among the "never-marrieds." But most of my friends from school in good ol' Missouri got married in their mid-20s as well. Almost all have kids. The median age of first marriages for women has gone up to 26.5 according to Pew. For men it's around 28, and that hardly seems shocking or disturbing. Especially when most people delay marriage for college and career these days. It's only natural that the statistics would reflect that trend.
Danielle Belton's entire blog entry at the Black Snob.