(ZENIT News / Los Angeles, 13.03.2024).- Lyman Stone, researcher at the Institute of Family Studies (IFS) and Directress Demographic Intelligence information, said to Crux that at present we are witnessing the lowest levels of marriage.
IFS’s mission is to strengthen marriage and family life, promoting children’s wellbeing through research and public education. In her research with Gallup agency, published in February 2024, the relationship is analyzed between marriage and the wellbeing of American adults. The results were published in the study, directed by Jonathan Rothwell, entitled “Married People Are Living Their Best Lives.”
Specialist Lyman Stone pointed out a fact: “For instance, at present about 60% of 35-year-old men have ever been married, as opposed to 90% in 1980. This tendency also suggests that that a growing proportion of Americans will not marry in their healthiest years.”
Other data indicates that only 20% of 25-year-old women and 23% of 25-year-old men have ever been married. Stone recalls that “in 1967, about 85% of 25-year-old women were ever married, as were 75% of 25-year-old men.” It was the period of the highest average of marriages. Previously, data for 1920, for instance, showed that only 70% of 25-year-old women and 50% of 25-year-old men had ever been married.
Stone said that many analysts believe that the present decline in marriages stems from delaying the wedding. “Although there is some truth in this, the situation is also extreme in older ages.”
The consequences for American society are notorious. “It points out that the long-term diminution of fertility is difficult to foresee, given that marriage is an important factor, which determines the behaviour of fertility. These tendencies can also give place to a great quantity of adverse results as people get older, including an increase in loneliness and isolation.”
The commentator also pointed out that “the benefits of marriage for individuals and society are considerable and, hence, so are the costs of failing in marriage.
Stone added, with a certain irony, “There is no reason to believe that we are entering in a period of chastity or celibacy that increases dramatically, so the decrease in marriage is obviously worrying for Churches, as it suggests that a greater proportion of people in our society will be faced with life experiences that may not fit well with the teachings of the Church.”
He says that Churches can do something in face of the decline of marriage: “Speak with clarity.” He also suggests that it’s timely “to establish programs: Church leaders must exhort people, without ambiguities, to seek marriage if they are not seeking to live actively the vocation to celibacy.”
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