Marriage rates in the United States have fallen to the lowest level ever since the government began tracking in 1867.
The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that there were only 6.5 new marriages per 1,000 people in 2018, according to the National Center for Health Statistics.
“Millennials are in peak marriage years, their 20s and 30s, and it’s still dropping,” Sally Curtin of the National Center for Health Statistics said. “This is historic.”
Marriage rates have ebbed and flowed in the last century, with a plunge during the Great Depression and a peak in the aftermath of World War II.
In 1982, rates began to decline steadily. The marriage rate stabilized in the wake of the Great Recession at a rate of 6.8-7 marriages per 1,000 people between 2009 and 2017.
“A lot of it is the economy and the extent to which COVID has a lasting effect on the economy. It might affect family formation,” Curtin said. With the COVID-19 pandemic leaving millions out of work, financial uncertainty is likely to discourage new marriages.
While wealthy people are still tying the knot, the middle classes are opting to form households without entering into marriage. The middle 60% of earners have experienced sharp declines in marriage rates, according to the Wall Street Journal.
