ABSTRACT
Across the industrialized world, young adults are marrying later and increasing numbers may not marry at all. 1 Although marriage has declined in some regions more than others, the trend away from marriage seems to be universal. Even in the United States, which has long had one of the highest marriage rates among industrialized nations, a 2011 survey found that barely 50 per cent of American adults were married-a record low. 2 In many nations, almost half of marriages end in divorce. And, increasingly, couples choose to live together before or as an alternative to marriage. Except in Asia, the proportion of children born outside marriage has also skyrocketed. 3
With the decline of marriage has come a shift in its meaning. Traditional, ‘institutional’ marriage based on fi xed, gender-based roles has given way to marriage based on companionship or, more recently, personal fulfi llment. 4 Refl ecting this new, individualized view of
1 Eurostat, Marriage and Divorce Statistics , 2012, https://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/statistics_explained/ index.php/Marriage_and_divorce_statistics (accessed 6 January 2014); National Center for Marriage and Family Research, Family Profi le on Median Age at First Marriage in the U.S. , 2008, https://ncfmr.bgsu.edu/pdf/family_profi les/fi le78895.pdf (accessed 6 January 2014); D.B. Elliott et al, Historical Marriage Trends from 1890-2010: A Focus on Race Differences , Population Association of America, SEHSD Working Paper Number 2012-12, 2012, www.census.gov/hhes/socdemo/ marriage/data/acs/ElliottetalPAA2012paper.pdf (accessed 6 January 2014); Japanese Marriage Trends in 2002: Later Unions and More Divorce Families , Social Trends: Series No. 9, https://unpan1.un.org/ intradoc/groups/public/documents/APCITY/UNPAN016635.pdf (accessed 6 January 2014).
