Marital decline among women

A reader asked if I could post the graph for marriage trends for women in their 20s. You can see that the percent married has dropped dramatically over the past 40 years. The norm was reversed in a historically short period of time. The rate is higher than for men of the same age, but women experienced a sharp drop in just the last two years: The percent married fell from 26.0 percent in 2008 to 22.5 percent in 2010.

The decline in marriage continues

This graph shows the decline in marriage among men in their 20s. Fifty-nine percent in 1972 were married. That has plunged all the way to 17 percent in 2010. The drop between the two most recent surveys--2008 and 2010--was 2 points.

Fifty-two percent of men in their twenties who are married attend church more than once a month. In the past year, my religious 21 and 22 year old nephews (the latter is on his way to med school) got married to great girls of the same ages. God bless 'em.

UPDATE: Audacious Epigone has reminded me that there are bloggers who doubt the validity of GSS data. Why haven't I seen them expressing their doubts about the data in the comment sections of this post?