- In the early 1980's, the United States witnessed the highest number of divorces ever granted: over one million. This led to an almost predictable domino effect with some of the children of divorce. In the late eighties and early nineties, we experienced the highest rates of teen sexual activity, teen pregnancy, births to teenage mothers, and out of wedlock births in our nation's history. Today's new generation is still experiencing the trickle-down effect by being part of the nation's highest-ever numbers of children born out of wedlock, and numbers of children raised by single fathers and mothers, unmarried parents and grandparents. Meanwhile, the marriage rate in the United States flirts with an all-time low.
- Over the last several decades, marriage in our nation has declined, while cohabitation, divorce and unmarried childbearing have increased.
- From 1970 to 1996, the marriage rate in the United States fell by a third, from 77 to 50 marriages per 1,000 unmarried women.
- From 1960 to 1998, the number of unmarried, cohabiting couples increased nearly tenfold, from 439,000 to 4.2 million.
- Divorce rates also increased from 9 to 23 per married couples from 1960 to 1980, before declining slightly and remaining steady at 20 per 1,000 through 1998.
- Births to unmarried women increased from 11 to 33 percent of all births from 1970 to 1994, then leveled off through 1999.
- Nationally, 1.3 million children are born out-of-wedlock each year.
(The data is for the year 2000 unless otherwise noted.)
