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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsLiving Together Trumps Matrimony for Recession-Wary Americans
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-03-22/living-together-trumps-matrimony-for-recession-wary-americans.htmlThe probability of a woman getting married by age 25 dropped to less than half as more Americans opt to cohabitate with their romantic partners rather than tie the knot, a U.S. government study shows.
The proportion of women living with men without marriage almost quadrupled to 11 percent as of 2010 from 3 percent in 1982, according to data released today by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. For men, the proportion rose to 12 percent in 2010 from 9 percent in 2002, said Casey Copen, a demographer at the National Center for Health Statistics.
The shift toward premarital living arrangements contributed to the delay in first marriage for both women and men. The recession that started in 2007 also may have played a role as young couples avoided the commitment because of unemployment and uncertain financial security. In 2006-2010, women and men married for the first time at older ages than in previous years.
In todays economic climate, many young adults are reluctant to pull the trigger, said W. Bradford Wilcox, director of the National Marriage Project at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, which monitors the health of marriage. They may be unemployed or underemployed or not know what the future looks like. Theyre hedging their bets.
Nuclear Unicorn
(19,497 posts)JustAnotherGen
(31,969 posts)The number one reason/cause of divorce is marriage.
One of the next? Arguments about money.
Then - Arguments about children (big money being spent there).
If you are going to be married - be very married and married for life.
If you don't want to be married for any reason - then simply don't get married.
Also - as a 39 year old woman getting married for the first time in a few weeks . . . I don't see what the big deal is about a woman not being married by the age of 25. She's barely begun paying her college loans off, let alone to have accumulated any personal wealth as say 22. If I were born in the 1980's? I would be delaying marriage for awhile too. After loans and wealth accumulation - I would tell any young woman to move away from home - even in a foreign country and work abroad. Travel. Experience everything. Make love! Engage in champagne campaigns! Take care of your bucket list!
Once you get married and have kids -you cease to exist as an individual decision maker. The 'others' color your life. So live it up young and single while you can. Any day you are going to wake up, realize you are getting married, look in the mirror and say, "I just WANT to go on my honeymoon and screw this b.s. about the cocktail hour!"