For the first time in nearly two decades, the share of unpartnered American adults has declined, according to Pew Research Center data. Unpartnered means neither married nor living with a partner, and the married share ticked up at the same time, from 50% to 51% of adults.
The long decline is real and deep. The marriage rate has fallen from 8.5 per 1,000 people in 1960 to roughly 6 today, and the share of adults who are married has gone from 72% in 1960 to about 51%. One in four American 40-year-olds has never been married. Among 12th graders, 67% said in 2023 they would likely marry someday, down from 80% in 1993, and Pew projects a record share of today’s young adults may never marry.
A one-point move, honestly read
The new data says something more complicated than a simple comeback. One survey headline put it as “singledom has peaked,” but that is probably too strong for a one-point move, the Beezloop analysis cautions — the direction has reversed after twenty years of not reversing, which is the interesting part. Pew also found that cohabitation is common and frequently precedes a later marriage, so many people counted as never married are not single in any way their friends would recognise.
Why it matters
Marriage shapes money, housing and family life, so even a small reversal in a twenty-year trend is worth watching. If the uptick holds in next year’s data, it would mark the first sustained turn in American partnering since the early 2000s. If it fades, it will join a long list of one-year blips. Either way, the underlying story is unchanged: Americans marry later, expect more from a partner, and increasingly live together first.
The online dating picture adds context. One in ten partnered adults in the US met their partner online, and the figure rises to one in five among under-30s, according to Pew Research Center data summarised in the Herway review. That matters because the same surveys show that 56% of Gen Z adults say it is harder to date now than it was for previous generations, with dating apps making people feel more disposable rather than more accessible. The technology that was supposed to make finding a partner easier may have made choosing one harder, and the new partnering uptick, if it holds, will have happened in spite of the apps rather than because of them.
