Marriage is having a moment. The 15th annual Singles in America study from the Kinsey Institute and Match — surveying roughly 5,000 U.S. singles — finds that the share of singles who want to marry has climbed from 33% in 2010 to 45% today. Meanwhile, the share who say they don’t want a relationship at all has dropped from 32% to 24%.
Fifteen years of data show American singles rethinking love, marriage, and money, according to the researchers — a striking reversal of the narrative that young adults have given up on commitment.
What’s Behind the Shift
Researchers point to a cultural recalibration. After years of headlines about the decline of marriage, singles appear to be romanticizing commitment again — valuing partnership, shared finances, and emotional stability in an uncertain economy. The survey found money attitudes shifting too, with financial compatibility carrying more weight in partner choice.
The data also suggests the pendulum swing is generational. Younger singles, raised amid dating-app fatigue, increasingly describe marriage as aspirational rather than outdated — a stark contrast with the skepticism that defined the early 2010s.
Wanting It Is the Easy Part
Desire doesn’t erase the obstacles. High housing costs, student debt, and the rising price of weddings themselves mean many singles want marriage but feel financially unready for it. The survey’s own money findings hint at the tension: singles want a partner and a plan, in that order.
Still, the trend line is clear. After a decade and a half of declining enthusiasm, American singles are swiping right on the institution of marriage itself — and that says something about where the culture is headed.
Money runs through the survey’s findings like a thread. Alongside the marriage revival, researchers found financial compatibility carrying more weight in partner selection than ever — singles increasingly treat a potential partner’s money habits as a preview of married life. That creates a tension the data doesn’t fully resolve: more singles want marriage, yet many feel financially unready for it, caught between rising housing costs and the soaring price of weddings themselves. The couples who navigate it tend to share one habit, researchers note — talking about money early and honestly, before the ring enters the picture. Wanting marriage is the easy part; building the financial foundation for it is the real modern courtship.
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