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posted by mrpg on Sunday July 30 2017, @05:55PM   Printer-friendly
from the marry-me dept.

You’re not the only one spending fewer summer weekends watching other people get married—but don’t worry, the weddings you’re still invited to might feel a little more special these days.

Fewer Americans are getting married, and the ones who still are have scaled back their weddings. Their nuptials are becoming smaller, though not necessarily cheaper, affairs.

Many couples are waiting longer and longer to schedule their weddings. In 2015, the median first-time American bride was almost 28 years old and the median groom almost 30, according to the most recent data available from the Census Bureau. (Ten years earlier, the typical bride was 25.5, the typical groom 27.)

The U.S. marriage rate—the number of new marriages per 1,000 people—has been falling for decades. It fell especially fast during the recession, in 2008 and 2009, but there’s little evidence that people started getting married again even as the economy recovered. And research firm IbisWorld predicts the marriage rate will keep falling over the next five years.

From a global perspective, that wouldn’t be a surprise. The U.S. marriage rate would need to fall by about a third to reach the marriage rates in other developed countries. The most recent data show a U.S. marriage rate of 6.9, compared with an average rate of 4.6 for countries in the European Union.

Are weaker economics the cause, or has marriage gone out of fashion?


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  • (Score: 2) by Nuke on Monday July 31 2017, @08:05PM (2 children)

    by Nuke (3162) on Monday July 31 2017, @08:05PM (#547335)

    if you used a dating club pre-internet, that probably puts you in your mid-40s or above).

    Just to be clear, I am middle-aged and married. I am describing my past experiences and commenting that most advice is totally off-target, certainly for me at the time. But of course this discussion is useful for others and your advice has a lot of sense in it.

    The only girls I ever dated were via a dating club. I soon concluded that any other way, though it might work eventually, was a demoralising waste of time. It was a horrible period of my life that one is supposed to enjoy. The thing about hobby clubs is that they are mostly older people and anyway they might have joined eg an art club because they are actually just interested in art. I have been in such clubs and usually the only women are the middle-aged wives of other members.

    Family? - date my cousin?! Friends? - my friends were all male and hobby related : we only ever "socialised" at hobby meets. If there had been a girl there they'd be outnumbered 20:1, but there weren't any. Such friends were hardly likely to introduce me to any girl - they didn't know any themselves. My mother was angry when she realised I'd joined a dating club : she said I should only date girls I "knew already", but of course there were none. One of the daftest things she ever said - but she came from a different age. But a lot of people seem to share that attiude "A dating club??!! - but you might meet strangers!! Aaaargh!"

    But once you date a girl you actually start to meet others too. One GF I had, who was one of the prettiest girls I have ever seen, like the actress Fairuza Balk in The Craft but better (but sooo dull), turned out to have three sisters of similar age and beauty. I saw a world which seemed to have conspired to exclude me.

    You talked of religion and Asian girls. One GF was a Muslim Malay, very pretty, shy and deferential; I don't think the religion would have been a problem. She was 27 and I was the first BF she'd had; her father was a senior official in Penang so she was not a gold-digger. But I met my future wife in the same "batch" of dating club introductions and I had to choose fast; sometimes I think ..... Most of the GFs I had were not high fliers, or downright working-class, and I think that is a better choice. I never looked for an intellectual sparring partner, I get enough grey cell excercise at work.

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  • (Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Monday July 31 2017, @10:06PM

    by Grishnakh (2831) on Monday July 31 2017, @10:06PM (#547391)

    The thing about hobby clubs is that they are mostly older people

    I have to differ on this one. First of all, here in the DC area there's a bunch of "maker" clubs and other such things on Meetup which seem to have a lot of younger guys. Of course, those kind of clubs aren't much help for finding a date if you're in your 20s-40s.

    But the hiking clubs I mentioned, and have some experience with, absolutely seem to function as singles mixers, though they have all ages. Most of the attendees seemed to be single, and it sure seemed like a lot of the people were there to mingle and chat with members of the opposite sex, and they did a lot (I talk in past tense because I have a gf now and haven't been on one of these hikes in a while). Now as I said before, they have all ages, and it did seem like a lot of people were 50+ (though in great shape I'll add), but again they seemed to be looking to mingle.

    that most advice is totally off-target, certainly for me at the time.

    I totally agree; I've heard plenty of such useless advice myself, like this:
    My mother was angry when she realised I'd joined a dating club : she said I should only date girls I "knew already",

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 01 2017, @05:48AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 01 2017, @05:48AM (#547529)

    I sure wish I had lived closer to my cousins. They were mighty fine. I would definitely have gone for them.

    Bonus: you already know the in-laws.