US Marriage Rate Rises to Pre-Pandemic Levels: CDC

A wedding ceremony as part of the Harbin International Ice and Snow Festival in China's Heilongjiang province, on January 6, 2016. Wang Zhao/AFP/Getty Images

Marriage rates in the United States returned to pre-pandemic levels, with divorce rates continuing a declining trend, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

“In 2022, the United States witnessed a significant uptick in the number of marriages, reaching a total of 2,065,905,” the CDC said in a March 15 blog post. This was the first time that marriages exceeded the two million mark since 2019. The rate of marriage in 2022 also saw a “significant increase,” hitting 6.2 per 1,000 individuals, which is the highest since 2018. The states with the highest marriage rate were Nevada (25.9), Hawaii (14.4), Montana (9.9), Utah (9.9), and Arkansas (7.9).

“Across the nation, 36 states and the District of Columbia reported marriage rates in 2022 that either matched or exceeded the levels seen in 2019, before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic,” the CDC said. “Noteworthy is the uptick in marriage rates from 2021 to 2022 in 31 states and the District of Columbia. In contrast, 12 states had declines in their marriage rates.”

“The most substantial percentage increases in 2022 compared with 2021 occurred in New York (21 percent), the District of Columbia (14 percent), and Hawaii (13 percent). Nevada maintained its status as the state with the highest marriage rate in 2022, although it experienced a 1 percent decrease from 2021.”

The number and rate of divorces were found to have declined in 2022, which the CDC said was “continuing a longstanding downward trend.” The rate of divorce was 2.4 per 1,000 individuals, down from 4.0 in 2000.

While marriage rates in 2022 saw an increase, the longer-term trend is not encouraging. The marriage rate of 6.2 in 2022 was nearly 25 percent lower than the rate of 8.2 in 2000.

In an interview with Axios, Andrew Cherlin, a sociologist at Johns Hopkins, said that even though taxes and certain other incentives continue to be available for married couples, the formal benefits of the institution have been in decline. The societal pressure for marriage has also fallen.

Many milestones usually linked to marriage are now happening outside of the institution, like living together and having children, he said.

“It used to be a basic institution that everyone had to buy into in early adulthood … You got married, then you moved in together, and then you got a job,” Mr. Cherlin stated. “Marriage is now becoming the last step into adulthood.”

Marriage Crisis

The data on rising marriage rates come as a record high share of 40-year-old individuals in the country have never married, a June 2023 analysis from Pew Research Center showed.

“In 1980, just 6 percent of 40-year-olds had never been married. But people born from the 1960s onward have been increasingly delaying marriage and a growing share are forgoing it altogether,” Pew said.

“As of 2021, 25 percent of 40-year-olds in the United States had never been married. This was a significant increase from 20 percent in 2010.”

In terms of gender, more men than women were found to have never married. Racially, blacks were “much more likely” to have never married compared to white, Asian, and Hispanic individuals. Marriage rates also differed in terms of education levels.

“40-year-olds without a four-year college degree were more likely to have never married than those who had completed at least a bachelor’s degree,” the analysis said.

“One-third of those with a high school diploma or less had never married, compared with 26 percent of those with some college education and 18 percent of those with a bachelor’s degree or more education.”

The age of marriage has also risen over the past decades. In the 60s, the median age of first marriage for men was around 23 years, and for women was around 20. By 2023, this jumped to over 30 years for men and more than 28 years for women.

Speaking to The Hill, Susan Brown, professor of sociology and director of the Center for Family and Demographic Research at Bowling Green State University, said that “there’s a longer checklist of items you need to complete before you’re considered marriageable.”

“You need to get a ‘real job.’ You need to be living independently ... All of these milestones take time to achieve, and as we all know, many people aren’t ever going to achieve them.”

“It used to be, you dated, then you got married ... Then it was, you dated, then you lived together, then you got married,” she said. And now, the consensus is that “you can enjoy many of the benefits of marriage without being married.”

The decline of marriages can have negative impacts on society. In a webcast with the Brookings Institution last year, economist Melissa Kearney said that marriage most benefits children. “Millions of kids outside the college-educated class are growing up with only one parent,” she said.

“They’re less likely to graduate high school, they’re less likely to graduate college, they are less likely to be married themselves and have higher earnings as adults. This is a major sort of source of perpetuation of intergenerational advantage and disadvantage.”

For instance, African Americans are economically weaker since a large percentage of children in the community lack fathers while growing up, Ms. Kearney said.