Family Law

Higher Education and Marital Trends

By guest-writer

One of the more commonly known marital statistics is that people without college degrees were more likely to be, or have been, married by their 30s than those with college degrees. This was true in the 1990s, but apparently is no longer the case.

A recent article in the Chicago Tribune outlines a recent study done by the Pew Research Center analysis of census which showed that, among 30-year-olds, 75 percent with a bachelor?s degree were or had been married, and 69 percent of people without a bachelor?s degree either were or had been married.

Part of the increase is attributed to unmarried couples living together. This trend seems to be more focused in the couples that are not college educated, but is rising across the board.

Richard Fry, a senior researcher at Pew, was responsible for writing the report and explains that, ?the labor market has not been kind to young, less educated workers? College used to delay marriage. Now, not completing college delays marriage.?

The implications from the article are unclear, but it is an interesting trend to watch. What is also unclear is how this is exactly related to the increase in individuals gaining a college education.

There were several other finds from the study:

• Over 90 percent of U.S. adults marry sometime in their life. This means Americans marry at higher levels than most other Western countries.
• Adults with less education are more likely to divorce. Around 2.9 percent of adults between the ages of 35 and 39 without college degrees, as compared to 1.6 percent with college degrees, saw their first marriage end in divorce last year.
• Married adults seem to make more money. In one earner households, the median income of a married adult was $63,000, while unmarried adults in one earner households were significantly less, earning a median salary of $53,000.

These types of census studies can give valuable insight into what is happening in our country. What these studies cannot do is fully explain why things are happening. This study shows several general trends, but we cannot make the cognitive leap and claim to know exactly why it is that statistically, a higher percentage of people with bachelor?s degrees will be married than people without bachelor?s degrees.

This study seems to set up an interesting follow up study. We know that the percentage of people without college educations who are married is less than those that are married, it would be interesting to see how those numbers match up to the increase in overall education. It seems that there are two trends working here, and the interplay between them hasn?t yet been worked out, but could lead to interesting results.

Full post as published by The Divorce Blog on October 15, 2010 (boomark / email).