2.2a Education and Marriage
Macroeconomic Barriers to Early Marriage
Young people today also face more macroeconomic barriers to early marriage than young couples in the past. Ruggles (2015) analyzed data about U.S. families and work covering 1800 to 2015. This data shows that wage-decline among young men and wage-stagnation among young women has led to decreasing marriage rates. Declining and stagnating wages contribute to financial instability. Financial instability contributes to young people deciding to postpone marriage until they feel more economically secure.
Marriage Rates Increase with More Education
A college degree improves economic security. As a result, education is strongly correlated with marriage. That is, marriage rates increase for people with college degrees compared to people without college degrees. Figure 2.6 shows that college-educated women are more likely to be married (58%) than women with a high school education (43%), some college (45%), or women without a high school education (26%) (Loo, 2024).
Studies of marriage rates and education conclude that people consider the earning potential of a marriage partner (De Hauw et al., 2017; see also Armstrong & Hamilton, 2021). A college education signals to potential mates that a person is more likely to bring income to the household and contribute to economic security and is, therefore, a more desirable mate. Furthermore, people with college degrees earn higher wages. Thus, the macroeconomic factors that lead to financial instability among people with less education contribute to greater economic stability among people with a college degree. Therefore, college-educated women are more often married than other women.
Figure 2.6
Percentage of U.S. Women Married by Education Between 1940 and 2022
Based on data from Loo, J. (2024). Marriage: More than a century of change, 1900 & 2022. Family Profiles, FP-24-10. Bowling Green, OH: National Center for Family & Marriage Research. https://doi.org/10.25035/ncfmr/fp-24-10. Copyright 2024 by National Center for Family & Marriage Research.
How Parent Financial Support and Religion Matter
Overall, couples today are getting married later. However, some groups continue to marry at an early age. Allison (2023) interviewed 45 married adults who were 18 to 23 and enrolled in college in Mississippi to understand their decisions at the micro level. These participants pointed to several factors as influential in their decision to marry early: conservative Protestant Christian beliefs that oppose premarital sex, social support from peers, and financial support from their family. For example, middle-class students’ decisions about whether to marry before or after college graduation depended on whether they would continue receiving financial support from their parents after marriage. Parental financial support reduced the risks associated with economic insecurity most young married couples face.