The same number of high school students tell a University of Michigan survey they plan on getting married, but couples are making nuptial arrangements at the rate their parents and grandparents did.
The marriage rate has dropped 60% in the past 50 years.
Marcela Bogado is a wedding planner with Malleret Designs near Austin who is seeing the shift in social norms. “The group between 30-40, because women are trying to put a lot on their professions first,” she says of the average bride.
Women are now 46.8% of the workforce, and women are more likely to have a four-year college degree. It has changed priorities.
“We have sweethearts that met in high school. We have brides from 32 to 35, pretty much to 40,” adds Bogado.
32 is pretty much average.
In 1976, 74% of seniors said they expected to get married, and in 2020, 71% said so.
Roughly half of first marriages end in divorce, so many of those filing for marriage licenses are familiar with the process.
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