Marriage in the U.S.: Twenty-five Years of Change, 1995-2020

Family Profile No. 29, 2020
Author: Lisa Carlson

The marriage rate in the U.S. has fallen over the last 25 years, while the rate of premarital cohabitation has increased (Cherlin 2020; FP-17-05). In 1995, the marriage rate was about 45 per 1,000 women, falling to about 31 per 1,000 women by 2020 (FP-20-21). Using data from the 1995 and 2020 Current Population Survey, this family profile investigates 25 years of change in marriage among women aged 18-49. Updating FP-15-17, the profile also examines variation in the share of women ever married by age, race/ethnicity, and educational attainment.

Age Variation

• Between 1995 and 2020, the share of women ever married decreased by 15 percentage points (from 72% to 57%).
• The proportion of women between 18-49 who ever married decreased for all age groups.
  • The relative size of the decrease between 1995 and 2020 was largest for women aged 18-24 and smallest for women aged 45-49.
  • For women aged 18-24, the proportion of women ever married was about 60% smaller in 2020 compared with 1995 (26%to 10%, respectively).
  • For women aged 45-49, the share of women ever married decreased by 7 percentage points between 1995 and 2020 (about 8% smaller).
    

Figure 1. Twenty-five Years of Change in the Share of Women (18-49) Who Ever Married by Age at Interview

Race/Ethnicity

• The share of women ever married decreased between 1995 and 2020 for all racial and ethnic groups.
• The change in the proportions of women ever married between 1995 and 2020 differed across racial/ethnic groups.
  • The shares of White women, Hispanic women and women in the ‘Other’ racial/ethnic group were all around one-fifth smaller in 2020 compared to 1995, with the greatest decline in the share for Hispanic women (22.5% compared to 18.4% for White women and 19.4% for women of Other races/ethnicities).
  • The proportion of women ever married declined the most among Black women for whom the proportion was 30% smaller in 2020 than in 1995 (37% versus 53%).
    

Figure 2: Twenty-five Years of Change in the Share of Women (18-49) Who Ever Married by Racial/Ethnic Status

Educational Attainment

• The proportion of women ever married declined from 1995 to 2020 for all levels of educational attainment.
• The decline in the share of women ever married differed across education levels.
  • The largest decrease in the proportion ever married was among women with a high school degree. In 2020, the proportion was about two-thirds of the proportion in 1995 (52% versus 77%).
  • The decline in the share ever married for those with less than a high school diploma and those who had some college education were about a quarter smaller in 2020 compared to 1995 (decreased by 25% and 27%, respectively).
  • Among women with at least a bachelor’s degree, the decline between 1995 and 2020 was about one-third as large as the decline among women with a high school degree (declines of 12% and 32%, respectively).

Figure 3: Twenty-five Years of Change in the Share of Women (18-49) Who Ever Married by Educational Attainment

Between 1995 and 2020, the share of women ever married decreased by 15 percentage points (from 72% to 57%).

References

• Cherlin, A. J. (2020). Degrees of change: An assessment of the deinstitutionalization of marriage thesis. Journal of Marriage and Family, 82(1), 62-80.
• Flood, S., King, M., Rodgers, R., Ruggles, S., & Warren, R. (2020). Integrated Public Use Microdata Series, Current Population Survey: Version 8.0 [dataset]. Minneapolis, MN: IPUMS, 2020. https://doi.org/10.18128/D030.V8.0
• Hemez, P. & Manning, W. D. (2017). Thirty years of change in women's premarital cohabitation experience. Family Profiles, FP-17-05. Bowling Green, OH: National Center for Family & Marriage Research. http://www.bgsu.edu/ncfmr/resources/data/familyprofiles/hemez-manning-30-yrs-change-women-premarital-cohab-fp-17-05.html
• Lamidi, E. (2015). Marriage in the U.S.: Twenty-five Years of Change, 1989-2014. Family Profiles, FP-15-17. Bowling Green, OH: National Center for Family & Marriage Research. http://www.bgsu.edu/ncfmr/resources/data/family-profiles/lamidi-marriage-25-yrs-change-fp-15-17
• Schweizer, V. J. (2020). Marriage: More than a century of change. Family Profiles, FP-20-21. Bowling Green, OH: National Center for Family & Marriage Research. https://doi.org/10.25035/ncfmr/fp-20-21
  

Suggested Citation

• Carlson, L. (2020). Marriage in the U.S.: Twenty-five years of change, 1995-2020. Family Profiles, FP-20-29. Bowling Green, OH: National Center for Family & Marriage Research. https://doi.org/10.25035/ncfmr/fp-20-29