Marriage has apparently gone stale in America.
The latest research shows that the proportion of those married in the U.S. is at its lowest point since at least 1920.
Just half of Americans aged 18 and older were married in 2015, down from 72 percent back in 1960, an updated study made by the Pew Research Center shows.
It notes that many Americans are opting to stay single longer, with the median age of one's first marriage hitting the highest point ever measured — 27.4 years for women and 29.5 years for men.
What has caused this drastic change?
Unmarried people voiced out various reasons for staying away from marriage, including not being ready yet to settle down or still financially unprepared to start a family, Pew states.
The same survey shows that although marriage has become unpopular, people are still eager to go into relationships, particularly online. It notes that the number of 18- to 24-year-olds who have used online dating sites has tripled from 10 percent in 2013 to 27 percent in 2015. Dating apps like Tinder and Bumble have even made it easier for young adults to enter into relationships.
Other research supports the contention that marriage is on the decline in the U.S. In 2015, the U.S. Wedding Forecast from Demographic Intelligence found that the marriage rate for that year was 6.74 per 1,000 people, down from 7.09 in 2008, Deseret News reported.
A Pew Research Center report that same year said one-fourth of millennials are likely to avoid marriage.
Sam Sturgeon, Demographic Intelligence president, noted that the United States has been experiencing a "cultural retreat from marriage."
One of the reasons for this is that many of today's men and women think marriage is not likely to last anyway, he said.
With this as the prevailing mindset, Sturgeon said more men and women are preferring to live together instead of getting married. Thus, many of these couples are having children outside of marriage.
"A lot of people would like to see marriage remain strong. It offers benefits to children," Sturgeon said.
He said research has shown that children raised by two married parents fare better than other children whose parents are divorced or who are not living together.
