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Marriage Statistics

Recent data on marriage rates and other characteristics, especially at the state level, can be difficult to find. People commonly ask about marriage rates; age at first marriage, percent of Americans that are currently married, percent that will ever marry and the average number of years currently married Americans have been married. We also provide information on marriage related trends worldwide. Finally, this section of the Web site details commonly used datasets that researchers use to calculate various marriage statistics.

Topics on this Page:

• Marriage Data Use
• Data Types
• Featured Links

Marriage Data Use

Marriage and divorce data are used to track, analyze, explain and interpret social changes and to predict the future course of events. Researchers and policymakers use this data to support policy development, program planning, implementation and evaluation strategies. Data is used to determine if specific community programs are effective and to develop community programs relating to maternal and child health services, newly married couples, families, divorced parents, and children of divorced parents. Because public policymakers and researchers respond to trends, they and other stakeholders need to have accurate estimates of marriage- and divorce-related events. Please see the Featured Links section below for additional statistical resources on the web.

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Data Types

1. Vital statistics data capture an event (e.g., a marriage) as opposed to a status (e.g., currently married). Researchers use event data to calculate rates and are able to track events over time to determine if they are occurring more or less frequently. Vital statistics data can also be used to construct life tables, which estimate the proportion of individuals who will marry and divorce over their lifetimes. (Life tables can be constructed from survey data as well.)
• Strengths - Additionally, event data provides total counts of marriages at the state level. This data can be used to calculate trends at sub-national levels. Event data based on vital statistics provides a more complete count and therefore can be used as a cross check to ensure that survey estimates are valid. Also, the vital statistics system is more timely than surveys for monitoring trends/surveillance since survey data may have a substantial time lag.
• Limitations - The primary limitation of vital statistics data is that the federal government, through the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) National Center for Health Statistics, collects only counts of marriages and divorces. Although many states collect substantial demographic information about marrying couples, this data is not reported to the federal government. A 2002 study for the DHHS Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) summarized state marriage and divorce data collection efforts (see link below). A current project for ASPE and the Administration for Children and Families will update this information. Other limitations include lack of information on cohabitation and separation. Because these are not legal events, they are not captured in vital statistics systems. Also, marriage and divorce data collection systems are often paper-based, making information difficult to analyze.


2. Survey data can provide estimates on various outcomes, such as couple status at a point in time, transitions in and out of marital and cohabiting relationships, and the marital and relationship histories of individuals (depending on the type of survey). Many surveys offer nationally representative estimates of these outcomes, although information at the state and community level is more limited. Even surveys that are not broadly representative can be useful for examining these outcomes for specific population sub-groups (e.g., a single birth cohort or new parents). In addition, survey datasets can provide information on the consequences of marriage, divorce, and cohabitation.

Survey data can be grouped into four categories:

1. Single point in time (cross-sectional) surveys that do not include retrospective relationship information. Examples:
• American Community Survey
• Current Population Survey
• Decennial Census
• National Survey of America's Families


2. Cross-sectional surveys that include retrospective relationship information.
   Example:
• National Survey of Family Growth


3. Surveys that track the same individuals over time (longitudinal or panel surveys) but provide no retrospective information.
   Example:
• Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study


4. Longitudinal surveys that also contain retrospective relationship data.
   Examples:
• Survey of Income and Program Participation
• National Survey of Families and Households
• Panel Study of Income Dynamics
• National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979
• National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997


• Characteristics - These four types of survey data vary in their ability to provide reliable information on current relationship status, relationship transitions, and relationship histories. In general, cross-sectional surveys that do not ask about relationship histories can capture marital and cohabitation status at a point in time, but provide no information on changes in marital status (i.e., transitions). Without information on marital status changes, marriage and divorce rates (i.e., percentage of people who get married or divorced in a particular year) cannot be calculated. In contrast, cross-sectional surveys that specifically ask about past marriages and divorces provide information on both current marital status and changes in status, allowing marriage and divorce rates to be calculated.
  
  Longitudinal data without retrospective information can capture current relationship status as well as changes that occur during the time survey respondents are tracked. This data, however, provides only a limited window of time in which transitions can occur (i.e., the duration of the panel). Finally, longitudinal data with retrospective information capture current status as well as past and present changes in relationship status.

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