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Does marriage matter in the 21st century?
Not as much as it used to, a new Pew/Time magazine study finds.
After polling 2,691 adults, Pew found that while four out of 10 Americans younger than 30 say that marriage is becoming obsolete, only 5 percent of people in that age range don’t want to get married. The study also found that fewer couples are getting married than they were in previous decades, and that the decline maps fairly neatly onto class differences.
As of 2008, college grads are more likely to get married than people with high-school diplomas, and high-school grads were 16 percent more likely than their peers to get hitched.
As Time puts it, “the richer and more educated you are, the more likely you are to marry, or to be married—or, conversely, if you’re married, you’re more likely to be well off.”
The poll also showed a tilt toward liberal attitudes on social issues.
A minority of people are likely to disapprove of gay or unmarried couples raising children, or of interracial couples getting married or unmarried people living together. This is in keeping with bigger trends, as “cohabitation” has spiked sharply over the past two decades — it’s doubled since 1990 and increased by 13 percent between 2009 and 2010. (This was partly exacerbated by the recession.)
The key takeaway from the study, Pew says, is that the definition of family is expanding and becoming less synonymous with marriage.
To see the entire Pew report, click here: http://tinyurl.com/23prs8x
