The rising tide of unpartnered American adults may have reached its limit, according to new data from Pew Research.
For more than two decades, the share of American adults who do not live with a romantic partner has been increasing, while the share of Americans who are married has been decreasing.
While the share of adults who are cohabiting couples without being married has doubled since 1990, it still represents only 7% of the total adult population, Pew reports. Marriage rates have fallen apart from increases in cohabitation.
The modern low point in the share of American adults who are married was recorded in 2019, when exactly half (50%) said they were married and the other half said they had no partner or lived with a partner outside of marriage.
The share of married adults ticked up slightly, to 51% in 2023, Pew reports, and the share of unpartnered adults ticked down slightly, from 44% in 2019 to 42% in 2023. The share of adults cohabiting with an unmarried partner also increased, from 6% to 7% in the same time period.
While these increases and decreases are seen in all age groups, certain demographic groups lean significantly more one way or the other.
As of 2023:
- Women are more likely than men to be unpartnered (44% vs. 40%).
- 86% of adults 18 to 24 are unpartnered, which aligns with the reality of couples today often delaying marriage into their 30s.
- 42% of 25- to 39-year-olds are partnered or married.
- 29% of 40- to 54-year-olds are partnered or married.
- 32% of 55- to 64-year-olds are partnered or married.
- 41% of those 65 and older are partnered or married.
- Men younger than 40 are more likely than women in this age group to be unpartnered. But among those 40 and older, women are more likely to be unpartnered.
- 61% of Black adults are unpartnered, compared with 45% of Hispanic adults, 38% of white adults and 35% of Asian adults.
- 44% of U.S.-born adults and 33% of foreign-born adults are unpartnered.
- 44% of adults ages 25 and older without a high school diploma are unpartnered, while 30% of those with at least a bachelor’s degree are unpartnered.
Previous Pew studies and a 2023 Federal Reserve survey show unpartnered adults tend to be financially worse off than partnered adults.
What’s happening with the shifting data on marriage rates is not that more people are getting married, a Pew report explains. Instead, fewer people are getting divorced.
Since 2009, divorce peaked in 2012 as 2.0% of married adults divorced in the prior year. In 2023, a record-low 1.4% of married adults got divorced.
Despite all these changes, the fact remains that even today, half of all American adults are not married.
This has brought significant changes to church culture and ministries, as classes and programs once designed for couples are more likely today to have given way to more generic groups that include both married and single adults. Also, few churches today offer marriage ministries or newlywed ministries that were popular nationwide in the 1970s through the 1990s.
And the thriving singles’ ministries of many a church in the 1970s is a relic of the past. Christianity Today reported in 2012: “The last 25 years have seen the church alter the way it relates to and reaches singles. The fervor to target singles directly is no longer front and center. On the contrary, ministry to singles is seen as a burden to many churches. What started out as a brilliant success has disintegrated into the realms of an epic fail.”