Less of Life Married by Steve Watters on 10/17/2006 at 2:00 PM

The NYT story on marriage is getting a lot of follow-up attention. Dr. Al Mohler has a great blog about it today and the Family Research Council had good analysis on it yesterday (and it looks like I'll get to talk about it on NPR today).

The best read seems to be that while married households are slipping below 50% that doesn't show that people are giving up on marriage as much as shows they are spending less of their lives married. While the Census report shows that around 80% of people will marry at some point in their lifetime, the same report indicates that those people are marrying later and are living longer (with many spending more time divorced or widowed).

That's consistent with the findings of the State of Our Unions report that came out this past summer. That report also does a good job of showing what the implications are for a culture where men and women spend less of their life married (and less of their life as parents).

By the way, the 300 plus comments on the New York Times blog about this article show a fascinating range of attitudes about marriage in our culture.

Less of Life Married by Steve Watters on 10/17/2006 at 2:00 PM

The NYT story on marriage is getting a lot of follow-up attention. Dr. Al Mohler has a great blog about it today and the Family Research Council had good analysis on it yesterday (and it looks like I'll get to talk about it on NPR today).

The best read seems to be that while married households are slipping below 50% that doesn't show that people are giving up on marriage as much as shows they are spending less of their lives married. While the Census report shows that around 80% of people will marry at some point in their lifetime, the same report indicates that those people are marrying later and are living longer (with many spending more time divorced or widowed).

That's consistent with the findings of the State of Our Unions report that came out this past summer. That report also does a good job of showing what the implications are for a culture where men and women spend less of their life married (and less of their life as parents).

By the way, the 300 plus comments on the New York Times blog about this article show a fascinating range of attitudes about marriage in our culture.