Millennial Marriage Projections

The Millennial generation has postponed marriage for so long it will go into the record books. According to projections by the Urban Institute, Millennials will be less likely to have married by age 40 than any generation in American history—even if they hurry up about it.

"The economic shock of the recession put marriage on hold for many young adults and marriage rates are returning slowly (if at all) to pre-recession levels," explain the Urban Institute researchers in their report on the projections. Take a look at the trend: Among women, the percentage who had married by age 40 was 91 percent for older Boomers, 87 percent for younger Boomers, and 82 percent for Generation X. Even if marriage rates return to pre-recession levels, only 77 percent of younger Millennial women will have married by age 40. If marriage rates do not rebound, an even smaller 69 percent will have married by age 40. For millennial men, the respective figures are 73 percent with a rebound and 65 percent without.

"With respect to marriage at least, our projections indicate that many of these millennials will not recover in the future from the opportunities they have missed as young adults," say the researchers. As if that's not enough, there's more bad news. Not only will Millennials be the biggest "singles" generation in history, but marital status will split the generation into haves and have-nots. That's because marriage rates are higher for college graduates, who earn more and tend to marry one another.

Source: Urban Institute, Fewer Marriages, More Divergence: Marriage Projections for Millennials to Age 40