Marriage doesn’t fall, it’s only late. This is what the statistics have concluded and some experts who have investigated the relationship between Generation Y and marriage.
The new generations are aware of the idea/desire to get married, they have only changed how and when they do it. Millennial couples believe in marriage, but consider an average of six years of relationship before marriage to be sufficient.
- The generation before these young people had already begun to extend the duration of this period.
- And that number seems to be increasing.
- This time meeting you and your partner seems to become one of the prenuptial guarantees.
In the end, many millennials are children of divorced parents; you might want to make sure you don’t have to go through this in your own marriages. The financial issue also seems to have a fundamental weight on the decision to engage and marry.
Young people want to develop their careers before starting a family, there are those who say it is a selfish position, but the truth is that it is a very responsible way to take your future children into an increasingly competitive world for children and their parents. .
Basically, what the statistics published by the New York Times say is that young people wait longer before getting married. In the United States, in 2018, the average age for marriage was 30 for men and 28 for women.
They also show that the percentage of people who decide to marry has fallen by almost 25% among young people since the 1970s.
Unlike a few decades ago, young couples take longer to consolidate their relationship or decide to live together for a while before they get married.
Statistics also show that most people earning less than $30,000 a year consider their financial situation to be what bothers them most when they make the decision to get emotionally involved.
While statistics can be devastating, a deeper second reading can reveal profound but also more responsible changes in the relationship between millennials and marriage.
According to researcher Stephanie Coontz, when generation Y youth reach average age, 80% of them will be married, a percentage similar to that observed 50 years ago, although the age at which they marry has changed.
One of the factors that can have a decisive influence on this aspect is the very significant change in the roles that women have consolidated in recent decades, since unlike their mothers and grandparents, this generation of young women did not grow to marry.
Women, for the first time in history, exchange marriage as a goal of life for quality marriages.
That is, getting married is no longer the main goal of women, and when they decide to take this step, they look for couples that guarantee them happier and longer marriages.
On the other hand, marriage is no longer the turning point that marks what is a serious relationship for society.
For those who are quick to judge and consider it all a lack of purpose, here’s an interesting tidbit: Millennial marriages appear to be of superior quality, even though they marry less frequently.
Between 2008 and 2016, the divorce rate fell by 18%. These are data provided by another study, this time by Phillip Cohen of the University of Maryland, who concluded that millennials are adopting increasingly selective criteria for marriage.
Its objective is to differentiate between sentimental relationships and marriages, which are not always the same, seek greater stability with the couple, a more rewarding coexistence and economic interdependence.
We are facing large-scale cultural and social changes. The institution of marriage does not lose its value among young people, but it is being reviewed and otherwise began to be valued.