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- Millennials are being strategic when it comes to love, and it’s changing marriage.
- Millennials fear getting divorced and are financially burdened, so they’re marrying later in life as they take time to get to know their partner, accumulate assets, and become financially successful.
- But some millennials aren’t getting married at all — and it’s causing the marriage rate to decline.
- Visit BusinessInsider.com for more stories.
Marriage is getting a generational facelift.
The reasons are many.
Often the children of divorce themselves, millennials fear going through a divorce. So, they’re being strategic when it comes to love. They’re taking more time to find the right partner, cohabitating before legally committing, and signing prenups to protect their assets. As a result, they’re bringing the divorce rate down.
Millennials are also delaying marriage for economic reasons — burdened with financial struggles like debt, they want to become financially successful first. And because more couples are coming together from different cultural or religious backgrounds, they’re more likely to pay for multiple ceremonies.
But that’s for those millennials who do marry — the generation is also bringing the marriage rate down.
From love to weddings, see how millennials are evolving marriage.
Millennials are fueling a declining divorce rate.
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Millennials are driving a 24% decline in the US divorce rate, reported Hannah Smothers for Cosmopolitan. Often children of divorce themselves, many millennials fear breakups and are taking more time to find the right partner to avoid an unstable marriage.
They’re also taking time to get their financial act together first — like establishing a career and paying off student loan debt — so they can enter marriage with less stress.
Millennials are marrying at a later age.
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Taking more time to find the right partner and prioritize financial success is causing millennials to marry later in life compared to previous generations. The median age of first marriage in the US is 27 for millennial women and 29 for millennial men, according to the US Census Bureau.
And those who have found the right partner are waiting longer in their relationships to get married — 4.9 years on average, reported Kristin Salaky for INSIDER, citing a Bridebook study.
Millennials are cohabitating and even buying homes together before marriage.
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More couples are cohabitating before marriage — a sixfold increase from their parents’ generation — and it’s just another move contributing to a decline in divorce rates, reported INSIDER’s Kim Renfro. A study published in the Journal of Marriage and Family asserted that living together "has become part of the pathway towards marriage."
Some couples are even buying homes together before getting engaged, prioritizing homeownership over marriage. This reflects the generation’s shift in attitudes toward marriage and is a result of economic conditions — high housing prices make splitting a mortgage favorable.
See the rest of the story at Business Insider
See Also:
- 2019 is the final class of millennial college graduates. Next stop: The Great American Affordability Crisis.
- Before he was a billionaire, WeWork CEO Adam Neumann was broke. Here’s the NYC building where he and his wife lived in a tiny apartment before he built a $47 billion company
- Millennials have less money than any other generation did at their age — but you’d never guess it from the way they’re flaunting their money on dating apps
DON’T MISS: Why are millennials abandoning divorce? Sex, money, and their parents
Source: Business Insider – hhoffower@businessinsider.com (Hillary Hoffower)