Author Michael Snyder posted Sunday an article titled, “43 Facts About Love, Sex, Dating And Marriage That Are Almost Too Crazy To Believe.” So what do we really know of relationships in 2017? Among other questions:
Is it more difficult for a woman to find a husband in America today compared to several decades ago? If a couple lives together before marriage, are they more likely or less likely to get divorced? Are married men more satisfied with their intimate relationships than single men are?
The truth is that there have been some seismic cultural shifts when it comes to romantic love, courtship, marriage and parenting in America. The way things worked for our parents and grandparents is not necessarily the way that things work in 2017. I expect that the statistics I am about to share with you will provoke some extremely strong reactions, and that is okay, because we need to have open and honest discussions about these things. The following are 43 facts about love, sex, dating and marriage that are almost too crazy to believe…
#1 The percentage of men in America aged 20 to 39 that are married has declined by about half since the early 1970s. Once upon a time 70 percent of all males in that age group were married, but today that number has dropped to around 35 percent.
#2 The Brookings Institute just released a study that found that parents that just “live together” are far more likely to break up than parents that are actually married…
“Almost half of cohabiting college-educated mothers will break up with their partner before their child turns 12, compared to less than one-fifth of mothers who were married when the child was born,” wrote W. Bradford Wilcox and Laurie DeRose in a memo explaining the study.
#3 In 1920, there were 92.3 marriages for every 1,000 unmarried women in the United States. But by 2012, there were only 31.1 marriages for every 1,000 unmarried women.
#4 All the way back in 1950, 78 percent of all households in the U.S. contained a married couple. Today, that figure has plummeted all the way down to 48 percent.
#5 One recent survey found some very interesting things about the relationship between marriage and sex…
In the National Health and Social Life Survey, 51 percent of married men reported that they were extremely emotionally satisfied with sex, compared with 39 percent of cohabiting men and 36 percent of single men.