A quarter (25 percent) of 40-year-olds in the United States had never been married as of 2021, according to a new Pew Research Center analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data.
“Marriage has long been a central institution in the lives of Americans. In 1980, just 6 percent of 40-year-olds had never been married. But people born from the 1960s onward have been increasingly delaying marriage, and a growing share are forgoing it altogether,” Pew Research Senior Researcher Richard Fry wrote.
The 2021 data “marks a new milestone in that decadeslong trend,” Fry found.
25% of U.S. 40-year-olds have never been married. That's a historic first. The previous historical high point was 1910 when 16% of U.S. 40-year-olds had never been married. https://t.co/XaJqvy7Q3c pic.twitter.com/nYfw47UsbE
— Richard Fry (@r_fry1) June 28, 2023
Census Bureau data showed that while many…
