Dr Paul Allen

Image via Wikipedia WASHINGTON, DC , December 15, 2011 ( LifeSiteNews.com ) - A  report  published yesterday by the Pew Research Center says that only 51% of adults in the United States are currently married. Compared to 1960 when 72% of all adults ages 18 and older were married, this represents a new low for the U.S., and, according to the report, is representative of most other “advanced post-industrial societies .” “If current trends continue,” senior writer D’Vera Cohn advises, “the share of adults who are currently married will drop to below half within a few years. Other adult living arrangements—including cohabitation, single-person households and single parenthood —have all grown more prevalent in recent decades.” The report also reveals that the number of adults who have never married has almost doubled, from 15% to 28%, since 1960, and that the median age at first marriage has risen from 20.3 to 26.5 for women, and from 22.8 to 28.7 for men. Image by mary hodder via Flic

Image via Wikipedia I have some good news and bad news on the marriage front. First, the good news: According to a new study by the Institute for American Values and the National Marriage Project at the University of Virginia , the divorce rate for married couples with children has fallen nearly to the rate of the early 1960s, when JFK was president. But this news is not as good as it seems. That’s because the bad news nearly cancels it out. Fewer of us are bothering to tie the knot at all. The rate of cohabitation — “living together”— has exploded. The study finds that cohabitation has increased fourteen-fold since 1970. This means that about 24 percent of children are born to cohabiting couples today. Meanwhile, another 20 percent are part of a cohabiting household at some point during their growing-up years. That means nearly half of all American children have lived in a home where the adults are merely living together rather than married. Image via Wikipedia Today’s advocates