Penna Dexter

The divorce rate is falling in America. According to an analysis of US Census Bureau data, it fell 18 percent from 2008 to 2016. Even after controlling for factors such as an aging population, University of Maryland sociology professor Phillip Cohen found the drop was still 8 percent. Underneath this trend there’s both good and bad news.

The good news is: the marriages of Generation Xers and, to a greater extent, millennials are lasting longer. Couples are marrying later. They are more highly educated — a marker for marital stability.

The bad news is that poorer and less educated Americans are choosing cohabitation over marriage. They may raise kids together, but their relationships are less durable.

The marriage rate is dropping and marriage is becoming what Alan Jacobs of the Institute for Family Studies calls a “far more exclusive institution.”

Then there’s the trend called “grey divorce.” The divorce rate among baby boomers has always been high and it still is. It doubled for people ages 55 to 64 during the period from 1995 to 2015 and tripled for Americans 65 and older. This renders the change among young people particularly striking according to Susan Brown, a sociology professor at Bowling Green State University. She predicts the overall divorce rate will see “a sustained decline in the coming years.”

So, the primary driver of this is a sort of inequality where less educated young people think they have to wait to marry until they can afford a splashy wedding, a couple of out-of-wedlock kids come along, and they never get around to tying the knot. And the idea that grandparents are divorcing at high rates:  how sad for them, their kids, and their grandkids who only have pictures of past family traditions and togetherness that will never be a part of their own lives.

The next generation requires strong families to stand against massive cultural headwinds. These kiddos deserve married parents and grandparents.