News — BOWLING GREEN, O.鈥擬ore women are waiting to get married, but choosing not to wait to have children. That鈥檚 the conclusion in a new profile from the National Center for Family and Marriage Research (NCFMR) at Bowling Green State University. Researchers looked at data from the U.S. Census Bureau鈥檚 Current Population Survey and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention鈥檚 National Vital Statistics to investigate the trends in a woman鈥檚 average age at first marriage and first birth since 1980.
Between 1980 and 2011, the average age of a woman when she got married rose 21 percent, from 22 to 26.5 years old. In 2011, women over 26 years old accounted for half of all first marriages.
When it comes to having children, between 1980 and 2009 the average age at first birth went up from 22.6 to 25 years old, an 11 percent increase. One-half of women who became mothers in 2009 gave birth by age 25.
In the 1980s, more women on average were getting married before having children. In the years that followed, the gap narrowed as the median age at first marriage climbed rapidly, while the median age at first birth started to plateau. 鈥淵oung adults are delaying marriage, but this doesn鈥檛 mean they aren鈥檛 having children,鈥� says Dr. Susan L. Brown, co-director of the NCFMR.
Since 1991, more women have had their first child before they鈥檝e gotten married. 鈥淭his is clear evidence that marriage and childbearing are decoupled. Women don鈥檛 need to get married to have a child,鈥� Brown notes. In fact, in 2010, more than 40 percent of births were to unmarried women.
Click to access the profile.
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