--- title: Millennial Marriage Rates description: A new report from Pew Research predicts that more folks under 35 will be single forever. Here's why canonical: https://time.com/3422624/report-millennials-marriage/ author: Belinda Luscombe article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-09-24T10:13:26.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:45:23.637Z og:title: Why 25% of Millennials Will Never Get Married og:description: New study shows that more people under 35 will be single forever og:url: https://time.com/3422624/report-millennials-marriage/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb7894c6f24827f26/6986a4ede8524b3dc0604dbb/why-arent-you-married.jpeg?branch=production&width=655&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 655 og:image:height: 368 og:image:alt: why aren't you married og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Why 25% of Millennials Will Never Get Married twitter:description: New study shows that more people under 35 will be single forever twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb7894c6f24827f26/6986a4ede8524b3dc0604dbb/why-arent-you-married.jpeg?branch=production&width=655&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Why 25% of Millennials Will Never Get Married > Sponsored content. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=93d0053d-524e-430a-920d-85391d313e93&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Millennial-Driven Housing Boom Could Be On The Way [Watch (HLS stream): Millennial-Driven Housing Boom Could Be On The Way](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/Fi319Gb1.m3u8) (1:25)  _Published 2014-06-27. A new study says as the economy improves many millennials could soon be leaving home — causing a housing boom within the next decade._  by [Belinda Luscombe](https://time.com/author/belinda-luscombe/)  ## Belinda Luscombe Editor at Large Sep 24, 2014 10:13 AM UTC   by [Belinda Luscombe](https://time.com/author/belinda-luscombe/)  ## Belinda Luscombe Editor at Large Sep 24, 2014 10:13 AM UTC The number of Americans who have always been single and will never marry is at a historic high, says a new Pew Research report, partly because they don’t have jobs and partly because marriage is becoming less highly-regarded. Most people think it’s important for couples who intend to stay together to be married, but the number of single Americans who want to get married has dropped significantly even in the last four years. The report, based on census data and Pew’s surveys, is the latest in a series of indicators that marriage’s stock is on a sharp downward trajectory. Fewer young people are getting married and many are getting married later. About 20% of Americans older than 25 had always been single in 2012, up from 9% in 1960\. In the black community, the numbers are even starker: 36% of black Americans older than 25 have never been married, a fourfold increase from 50 years ago. The one number that hasn’t really budged is the percentage of 64 year olds who have never been married. In 1960, it was 8% and in 2012, it was 7%. But the report’s authors Wendy Wang and Kim Parker say this might be changing. Each decade, the percentage of people of marriageable age who are single has grown. “When today’s young adults reach their mid-40s to mid-50s, a record high share (roughly 25%) is likely to have never been married,” they write. “This is not to say that adults in their mid-40s to mid-50s who still haven’t married will never marry, but our analysis suggests that the chance of getting married for the first time after age 54 is relatively small,” adds Parker. Why aren’t people getting married anymore? The three main reasons people give for their singleness are that they haven’t found the right person (30%), aren’t financially stable enough (27%) and are not ready to settle down (22%). Many more young people are eschewing tying the knot, at least for a while, for shacking up. The researchers don’t see that as the new normal yet. “Cohabitation is much less common than marriage and cohabiting relationships are much less stable than marriages,” says Parker.”It’s hard to imagine marriage being replaced any time soon.” But the Pew researchers teased out a bunch of other reasons by asking what people wanted in a partner. The quality most women want in a husband, somewhat unromantically, is a secure job, followed very closely by similar ideas on raising kids, which was the quality most men wanted in a spouse. The problem is, the report points out, that young men are increasingly less likely to be employed. “In 1960, 93% of men ages 25 to 34 were in the labor force; by 2012 that share had fallen to 82%.” Those young men who are employed are not bringing home as much bacon as they once did. In fact, if you adjust for inflation, the median hourly wages of men aged 25 to 34 are a fifth less than they were in 1980. Compounding that issue is that women have entered the labor force in much higher numbers. So while there are more men than women who are single and available, there are far fewer employed men who are single than employed women. Fifty years ago there were 139 single young men with jobs for every 100 single young women; that ratio has now dropped to 91:100\. “If all never-married young women in 2012 wanted to find a young employed man who had also never been married, 9% of them would fail,” says the report, “simply because there are not enough men in the target group.” But lest that bum all the single ladies out too much, the report points out that single young women don’t have to marry single young men: they can marry guys who are divorced, widowed or much older. Should they bother? Now that comedian Sarah Silverman has declared marriage [barbaric](https://twitter.com/SarahKSilverman/status/513831568998424576), is it done? The Pew researchers don’t think so. “Marriage hasn’t fallen out of favor,” says Parker, “but financial constraints and imbalances in the marriage market may be holding people back from taking the plunge.” ## Transcript Millennials, they take flak for just about everything but here's one area where they might soon be pulling their weight, the housing market. A new study says as the economy improves many millennials could soon be leaving home, causing a housing boom within the next decade. The report comes from Harvard University's Joint Center for Housing Studies and projects some 24 million new households will be formed by millennials between 2015 and 2025. That after many of those same millennials, according to the study those born between 1985 and 2004, moved back home after the housing bust of 2008. A 2013 Pew study reported a record 21. 6 million young adults were living at home as of 2012 but it appears that basement apartment is about to be no more. CNN quotes the Center's research director, Chris Herbert, saying, when the job market recovers and their income recovers, they are going to make their mark on this housing market. So, what's been the hold- up? Well, as Herbert mentioned the job market and income. But also student loans. According to USA Today, student loan debt increased by $ 114 billion last year. And median income for households ages 25 to 34 fell 11 % from 2002 to 2012. The study says tighter lending standards might also have played a role in decreased home ownership among millenials. According to Forbes, there are currently more than 80 million millenials in the U. S. 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