According to a report by the Pew Research Center, the percentage of unmarried people age 25 or over has risen. (Photo Illustration by Emily Johnson)Wedding bells are ringing less for Sun Devils and other young adults, emerging research says.
According to a report released by the Pew Research Center, the percentage of people age 25 or over that have never been married has reached a record high. The report says in 2012, 23 percent of men and 17 percent of women age 25 or over had never married, which is up from 17 percent of men and 13 percent of women in 2000.
Nonprofit leadership management junior Emily Huffman said she would likely be part of the growing trend, because she would like to establish herself before getting married.
"I want to finish school first," Huffman said. "I am supposed to graduate next December, and I'd like to get into my career before anything like that happens. I think that if you're trying to start your career and then get married and want to start a family, it can put your own plans on hold."
Exercise and wellness freshman Kamryn Belardine agreed with Huffman, and said she wanted to establish herself before marriage.
“I think a lot of people now are trying to focus on their careers so they can be stable before they get married and want to start a family,” Belardine said.
Those responses were consistent with the research findings, which said financial security is the most common reason young adults give for delaying marriage. The research showed young adults value financial security as a prerequisite even more than their counterparts ages 34 and older.
While 50 years ago the largest percentage of unmarried women were those with post-graduate degrees, recent research shows the level is about the same for all education levels for women. For men, the highest percentage of the unmarried group was those with a high school degree or less.
Criminal justice senior Melanie Barron said she encountered many people who told her she was too young to get married. Barron married her husband, Greg, in April after she turned 21 and was still a junior at ASU.
“My grandpa’s biggest thing was always schooling,” she said in an email. “He never failed to make sure I was going to continue school even though I was getting married and working full time. He wasn’t too happy that I took a semester off to plan and get married and go on a honeymoon.”
However, Barron said being married keeps her accountable to herself and her responsibilities.
“I have the best support system to encourage me and keep me motivated while I get back in the swing of school and finish up my degree,” she said.
Barron said getting married younger also gave her time to spend time with her husband before they feel the pressure to have children.
“So many people who get married later in life want to try to start a family right away because their biological clocks are ticking,” she said. “Greg and I have time to just be a married couple, to get to know each other as husband and wife before having to know ourselves as a mom and dad.”
While the research shows that people are definitely delaying marriage longer, it also suggests a record high may never marry. The report states that approximately 25 percent of today’s young adults, ages 25 to 34, might never get married at all.
LGBTQ adults were included in the data and their results were included in the total percentages. A survey administered in 2013 showed 60 percent of LGBTQ adults were married or would like to be married one day, compared with 76 percent of all responses.
Reach the reporter at cvanek@asu.edu or follow her on Twitter @CorinaVanek
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