Married Couples are Now a Minority

[Frodo]

To Be Married Means to Be Outnumbered

By SAM ROBERTS
Published: October 15, 2006

Married couples, whose numbers have been declining for decades as a proportion of American households, have finally slipped into a minority, according to an analysis of new census figures by The New York Times.

The American Community Survey, released this month by the Census Bureau, found that 49.7 percent, or 55.2 million, of the nation’s 111.1 million households in 2005 were made up of married couples — with and without children — just shy of a majority and down from more than 52 percent five years earlier.

The numbers by no means suggests marriage is dead or necessarily that a tipping point has been reached. The total number of married couples is higher than ever, and most Americans eventually marry. But marriage has been facing more competition. A growing number of adults are spending more of their lives single or living unmarried with partners, and the potential social and economic implications are profound.

[afleitch]

If you had gay marriage you would see marriage in the majority once again.

[© tweed]

More evidence that the evil liberals are destroying America.

[ilikeverin]

Okay, I admit it, when I was little I really really wanted to get married when I grew up, but nowadays thanks to those gays getting more uppity I've decided marriage is the devil.

[Sam Spade]

I'm kinda confused about two points made here which seem illogical and not based on any sort of fact construct. 

The first is that control of a republican government by politicians interested in some type of moral agenda will lead to a greater percentage of that population following the precepts of that agenda in their own personal lives.

The second is that by allowing certain sub-sets of the population a particular right to do something currently disallowed by law (like marriage), this will lead a society producing a higher percentage of total persons engaging in that activity.

[afleitch]

The second is that by allowing certain sub-sets of the population a particular right to do something currently disallowed by law (like marriage), this will lead a society producing a higher percentage of total persons engaging in that activity.

It's simple; by legalising gay marriage, gay people will marry and the total number of married couples in the US will therefore increase.

Furthermore, if the stigma (that still exists in parts of the country) that is still attatched to re-marriage after a previous divorce was put to rest you may also see marriage rates increase.

[Nym90]

One thing about this statistic that may be missed is that of course married couple households have twice in many people in them (on average) than non married couple households.

I think it would be more relevant to look at what percentage of the total population lives in a married couple household than looking at what percentage of all households are occupied by married couples.

The Vorlon has mentioned this as a problem for pollsters of course as well, since if you just dial random telephone numbers, you are twice as likely to get a single person as opposed to a married person.

And Afleitch is of course correct, since gay couples who would be married if they were allowed to by law are being counted in this statistic as single people.