By Rita R. Robison
About five years ago when I wrote a senior consumer column for The (Tacoma, Wash.) News Tribune, I interviewed an author who said people who were never married are happier than married couples. She said never marrieds are lumped in with divorced and widowed people, who tend to be depressed about losing their spouses.
The author talked about the discrimination single people face.
In the column, I also mentioned the growing number of households headed by single people and that soon, single households would outnumber married. My editor didn’t like the column. I think she, like many, believe that marriage is the norm and that the trend toward increasing single households isn’t good.
So, the day has arrived. The 2010 census shows that in the United States, 51.6 percent of households are headed by unmarried adults, up from 44.9 percent in 1990 and 48.3 percent in 2000.
The 13 states where married households are still the majority are Hawaii, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Virginia, and Wyoming.
Why are single households increasing?
The fast-growing older population, that’s baby boomers, is more likely to be divorced or widowed later in life, and 20-somethings are putting off their nuptials for longer stretches, demographer Charles Rynerson said in the AOL News article "Unmarried Households Put Married Couples in the Minority."
What do you think of this single takeover? Are you newly single or have you been single for years?
Or, does the new trend make you worry about the future of the family in America?
Let me know in the Comment section below.
