Record high number of 40-year-olds never married, study reveals.

A Record Number of 40-Year-Olds Have Never Been Married

According to a Pew Research Center analysis of Census Bureau data from 2021, a record number of 40-year-olds in the United States have never been married.

The analysis reveals that 25% of 40-year-old Americans have never been married before, which is a significant increase from 20% in 2010. In 1980, this number was just 6%, indicating a continuous rise in the trend. Interestingly, the majority of these never-married 40-year-olds, 78%, also did not live with a romantic partner.

Richard Fry, a senior researcher at Pew, stated, “In all prior generations of American adults, less than 1 in 5 adults had not tried marriage by age 40,” in an interview with CNN.

Delaying or Foregoing Marriage

The data also reveals a larger trend of people delaying or forgoing marriage altogether. More men than women, with 28% of men and 22% of women, have never been married by the age of 40.

A report titled “The Date Night Opportunity” by the National Marriage Project highlights that the median age of marriage has been increasing over the past five decades. In 1970, the median age of marriage for men was 23, but in 2021, it had risen to 30.

Factors of Race and Education

The Pew analysis also examines the impact of race and educational attainment on marriage rates. Black 40-year-olds are more likely than white, Hispanic, or Asian 40-year-olds to have never been married, with 46% falling into this category. The numbers are 27% for Hispanics, 20% for white people, and 17% for Asians.

Furthermore, educational attainment plays a role, as the analysis shows that 40-year-olds without a four-year college degree are more likely to have never married compared to those with at least a bachelor’s degree. The percentages are 33% for high school graduates, 26% for those with some college, and 18% for those with a Bachelor’s degree.

Marriage Outcomes and Age 40

Data from the Census Bureau indicates that approximately one in four unmarried 40-year-olds had married by age 60. This suggests that most of the 40-year-olds in the 2021 census data will never marry.

Richard Fry explains that the data is analyzed at age 40 because it is a time when people reflect on their lives at the start of a new decade. Age 40 is particularly relevant as fertility and marriage are closely related, and many women desire to have children within a marriage. Fry states, “Since fertility wanes after the age of 40, 40 is an appropriate age to document marriage outcomes.”

According to the National Marriage Project report, both men and women who married early or later in life reported high levels of relationship satisfaction, with 81% of early-married men and 71% of later-married men expressing satisfaction.

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