| Chart of the Day |
| OCTOBER 30, 2026 |
PEOPLE • SOCIETY |
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| America Had 10.6 Marriages per 1,000 People in 1970. Today, 6.3. |
| The institution your grandparents took for granted is fading... and it’s reshaping everything from housing demand to how elections are won. |
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| U.S. marriages per 1,000 total population by decade. The 2020 figure reflects the COVID lockdown low. |
| Source: CDC/NCHS, National Vital Statistics System, 2024 |
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| You probably know someone who got married in the 1970s after dating for six months. Maybe it was your parents. Maybe it was you. Back then, about 10.6 out of every 1,000 Americans walked down the aisle each year. Today that number is 6.3. Down roughly 40 percent. |
| Most people blame this on “young people these days.” And sure, the median age at first marriage has climbed from 23 to 31 for men and from 21 to 28 for women. But waiting longer is only part of the story. A growing share of Americans aren’t getting married at all. In 1970, 71% of U.S. households had a married couple at the center. By 2022, that had fallen to 47%. |
| Now... here’s what that means in dollars. Married households have a median net worth roughly four times higher than unmarried households. That isn’t because rich people marry each other. It’s because two incomes under one roof, splitting one mortgage, building one retirement fund together, compounds over 30 or 40 years in ways that living alone simply cannot match. |
| And here’s the part that really gets me. With midterms five days away, every candidate is talking about “affordability.” Housing costs. Childcare. Health insurance. But almost nobody mentions that the collapse of marriage is one of the biggest drivers of the affordability crisis itself. Two people sharing a $2,200 rent payment is a tight month. One person paying it alone is a financial emergency. |
| This chart doesn’t just show a cultural shift. It shows the slow unwinding of the most effective wealth-building arrangement ever invented: a family. |
