Women's Union Status at First Birth

Family Profile No. 4, 2026
Author: Rachele I. Ioele

Both the share of females who have ever married and the share who have ever had a birth has declined (Westrick-Payne, 2025) and those who do marry and/or have a birth are increasingly delaying these events to later ages (Guzzo & Westrick-Payne, 2025; Julian, 2022). Further, the marital context in which women have births varies by educational attainment, race/ethnicity, and age (Wiborg, 2024). This profile expands beyond marital status by including cohabitation (union status) and relies on recent data from the 2024 June Fertility Supplement of the Current Population Survey (CPS) to identify recent trends in women’s union status at first birth updating a prior 2022 profile (Brown, 2022). We focus on first births occurring between 2022 and 2024 among women aged 44 or younger. We consider union status at first birth by time period, educational attainment, race and ethnicity, and age at first birth. In this profile, “single” refers to those who are not married or living with a partner. Also, sex is measured as female or male in the CPS; we use “women” to refer to females in the text.

Recent Trends in Union Status at First Birth

  • Overall, the trends in union status at first birth remained stable from 2018-2020 to 2022-2024.
  • About three-fifths of first births in both 2018-2020 and 2022-2024 occurred to married women, holding steady over the eight-year period (63% vs. 62%, respectively).
  • The share of first births to cohabiting women also stayed constant, accounting for nearly one-quarter of first births.
  • The share of first births to single women persisted at 16% in 2018-2020 and 2022-2024.
  • Focusing only on unmarried mothers who were cohabiting at the time of their first birth, the percentage also remained relatively stable (58% vs. 59%, respectively).

Figure 1. Union Status at First Birth Among Women with a First Birth in 2018-2020 & 2022-2024

Pie chart showing union status at first birth in 2018–2020. About three-fifths of first births were to married women, about one-fifth to cohabiting women, and 16% to single women, with little change over time.
Pie chart showing union status at first birth in 2018–2020. About three-fifths of first births were to married women, about one-fifth to cohabiting women, and 16% to single women, with little change over time.

Source: NCFMR analyses of U.S. Census Bureau, Current Population Survey, Fertility Supplement, 2024 (IPUMS CPS)

Note. Percentages may not total 100% due to rounding.

Union Status of Recent First Births by Educational Attainment

  • In 2022-2024, three-in-ten (30%) first births to women with a high school diploma or less occurred within marriage, compared to more than half (55%) among those with some college education and over four-fifths (86%) among those with a bachelor’s degree.
  • About two-fifths (40%) of women with a high school diploma or less had their first birth within cohabitation, compared to one-quarter (24%) among women with some college and one-in-ten (10%) to women with a bachelor’s degree.
  • The share of first births occurring to single women decreased with educational attainment, such that roughly one-third (31%) of women with a high school diploma or less and approximately one-fifth (21%) of women with some college education had their first birth while single compared to only 4% among women with a bachelor’s degree.

Figure 2. Union Status at First Birth by Educational Attainment, 2022-2024

Stacked bar chart showing union status at first birth by educational attainment in 2022–2024. The share of first births within marriage increases with educational attainment, with the highest share married among women with a bachelor’s degree and the lowest among those with a high school diploma or less.
Source: NCFMR analyses of U.S. Census Bureau, Current Population Survey, Fertility Supplement, 2024 (IPUMS CPS) Note. Percentages may not total 100% due to rounding.

Union Status of Recent First Births by Race/Ethnicity

Figure 3. Union Status at First Birth by Race/Ethnicity, 2022-2024

Stacked bar chart showing union status at first birth by race and ethnicity in 2022–2024. Births to White and Hispanic women most often occurred within marriage. Among Black women, births most often occurred while single.
Source: NCFMR analyses of U.S. Census Bureau, Current Population Survey, Fertility Supplement, 2024 (IPUMS CPS) Note. Percentages may not total 100% due to rounding.
  • Nearly three-quarters (73%) of first births occurred to White married women in 2022-2024, compared to 41% among Hispanic married women and 37% for Black married women.
  • Having a first birth within a cohabiting union was more common among Hispanic women (35%) than among White and Black women (18% and 25%, respectively).
  • Approximately two-fifths (38%) of first births to Black women occurred while single compared to nearly one quarter (24%) of Hispanic women and about one tenth (9%) of White women.

Union Status of Recent First Births by Age at First Birth

  • The share of first births in 2022-2024 occurring within marriage increased with age at first birth, such that a quarter (24%) of women under age 24 were married compared to 60% of women aged 25-29 and 86% of women aged 30 or older.
  • As age at first birth increased, the share of first births to cohabiting women decreased from 40% among those under age 24 at first birth to 24% among those aged 25-29 and 9% among those aged 30 or older.
  • Similarly, the share of births to single women also decreased with age at first birth from 36% among those under age 24 at first birth to 16% among those aged 25-29 and 5% among those aged 30 or older.

Figure 4. Union Status at First Birth by Age at First Birth, 2022-2024

fig4-age
Source: NCFMR analyses of U.S. Census Bureau, Current Population Survey, Fertility Supplement, 2024 (IPUMS CPS) Note. Percentages may not total 100% due to rounding.

This Family Profile is an update of: FP-22-21

National Center for Family and Marriage Research
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Data Source:

Flood, S., King, M., Rodgers, R., Ruggles, S., Warren, J. R., & Westberry, M. (2025). Integrated Public Use Microdata Series, Current Population Survey: Version 9.0 [dataset]. Minneapolis, MN: IPUMS. https://doi.org/10.18128/D030.V9.0

References:

Brown, A. R. (2022). Women’s union status at first birth. Family Profiles, FP-22-21. Bowling Green, OH: National Center for Family & Marriage Research. https://doi.org/10.25035/ncfmr/fp-22-21

Guzzo, K. B., & Westrick-Payne, K. K. (2025). Union and childbearing characteristics of women 40-44, 2000-2024.Family Profiles, FP-25-15. National Center for Family & Marriage Research. https://doi.org/10.25035/ncfmr/fp-25-15

Julian, C. A. (2022). Median age at first marriage, 2021. Family Profiles, FP-21-12. Bowling Green, OH: National Center for Family & Marriage Research. https://doi.org/10.25035/ncfmr/fp-22-15

Westrick-Payne, K. K. (2025). Forty years of change in marriage and motherhood among women, 1979 & 2024. Family Profiles, FP-25-14. Bowling Green, OH: National Center for Family & Marriage Research. https://doi.org/10.25035/ncfmr/fp-25-14

Wiborg, C. E. (2024). Women who gave birth within the past 12 months, 2022. Family Profiles, FP-24-14. Bowling Green, OH: National Center for Family & Marriage Research. https://doi.org/10.25035/ncfmr/fp-24-15

Suggested Citation:

Ioele, R. I. (2026). Women’s union status at first birth. Family Profiles, FP-26-04. Bowling Green, OH: National Center for Family & Marriage Research. https://doi.org/10.25035/ncfmr/fp-26-04

This project is supported with assistance from Bowling Green State University. From 2007 to 2013, support was also provided by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation. The opinions and conclusions expressed herein are solely those of the author(s) and should not be construed as representing the opinions or policy of any agency of the state or federal government.

National Center for Family and Marriage Research

Updated: 05/13/2026 11:32AM