While searches in YouVersion’s Bible app often turn up to-be-expected terms like “healing”, “love” and “fear”, one term that shows up consistently in the Top 10 is the word “marriage.”
And last week was no different. Thousands of users seem to be interested in what the Bible says about marriage, how to strengthen their marriage, and how to have a more meaningful marital relationship. That was consistent with a larger trend that appeared last week in trending YouVersion reading plans where the term “relationship” appeared in a number of very popular plans.
What’s notable here is that one of the most striking demographic trends over the last several decades is that the share of unmarried Americans rapidly increased with each successive generation. For instance, the United States’ Congress Joint Economic Committee, released a report in April of 2020 that indicated marriage rates were the lowest they’d been since 1900, when record keeping began.
According to data from the National Vital Statistics System, marriages peaked in 1946 in the United States when there were 16.5 marriages conducted per 1,000 adults that year. However, in data from 2018 that had dipped to just 6.5 marriages per 1,000 adults. And, given the restrictions on gatherings in 2020 and 2021, there’s ample reason to believe that they have dropped even lower.
For instance, a research team tracked marriages in five states during the early days of the pandemic to see if COVID led to a drop off in nuptials. In the state of Florida alone, there were nearly 30,000 fewer reported new marriages between March and May of 2020 than that same time period in 2019. In total, those five states recorded a net decrease in marriages of 20%. In a survey from The Wedding Report of wedding vendors and venues, they found that 20% of weddings have been postponed from 2021 into 2022. Whether the number of marriages taking place in 2022 will overcome the deficit created between 2020 and 2021 is impossible to know for certain.
Delayed or Declined?
But, how does this trend break down by age group? Are younger generations more reluctant to walk down the aisle than their parents? Beginning in 1972, the General Social Survey asked respondents about their marital status, with one option being, “never been married.” You can see that breakdown here:
In fact, there’s evidence that every successive generation is less likely to marry, or at least delay marriage, than the prior generation. For instance, even when most Baby Boomers were in the late teens or early twenties, half of them had already tied the knot. For Generation X, only a quarter of them indicated that they were married in that same age range.
And the trend continues: by the time the average Boomer was 35 years old, just 24% of them said that they had never been married. When the average member of Gen X was 25, over half of them had not been married. That hesitancy to get to the altar continued as Gen Xers moved into their thirties as well, when over 40% of them were still single and had never been married.
For Millennials, it’s apparent that they are delaying marriage at a rate that even exceeds Generation X. For instance, when the average Millennial was 25, nearly two-thirds have never been married. In fact, this data indicates that the average Millennial didn’t get married until they were around thirty years old. Given their current trajectory, it’s fair to say even as Millennials move into their forties, as many as 40% of them will still have never experienced a marriage relationship.
Thus, it’s fair to say that the trend line for Millennials represents two fundamental changes: One is that they are delaying marriage for longer than any prior generation. The other is that, for many of them, they may never walk down the aisle.
Despite Declines, There’s Still A Hunger
Yet, despite this seeming allergy to holy matrimony, scores of people go to the YouVersion Bible app each week and look for biblical guidance on marriage—perhaps a mix of those looking to thrive in existing marriages and those longing for one in the future. Despite the fact that many people express a skepticism of marriage, it’s still seen as the ideal relationship for vast swaths of American society.
The fact that Hallmark channel was watched more than CNN in the last quarter of 2020, and that the sale of romance novels in 2021 soared 24% from the previous year, should be an indication that many people are searching for happiness through some idea or ideal of what a relationship can be. How does that change the way you see and relate to the people you lead?