America’s young adults are far behind older generations in reaching
major life milestones
, including
marriage
and
family
, according to a new survey.
Marriage, children, financial independence, living independently, and maintaining a full-time job are five milestones the United States Census Bureau
cites
as key components in reaching “adulthood.”
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Modern young adults are all reaching these milestones later in life than their parents, and young men are falling behind their female counterparts in finding success in nearly every major indicator.
“Relative to young women, young men are losing ground — in school, on college campuses, and even in the workplace,” W. Bradford Wilcox, sociologist and director of the University of Virginia’s National Marriage Project, told the Washington Examiner. “Young men are less likely to have a clear sense of their mission and identity in life.”
According to a
study conducted
by the Pew Research Center, marriage rates among America’s young adults have declined precipitously.
In 2021, only 22% of 25-year-olds were married as compared to 63% in 1980. Similarly, 6% of 21-year-olds were married in 2021, compared to 32% in 1980.
While the numbers have dropped for both men and women, 25-year-old women were still 8% more likely to be married in 2021 than men, with 26% compared to 18%. In 1980, 71% of women were married compared to 57% of men.
The percentage of 25-year-old men and women who have a child in the home has also dropped significantly since 1980, where men went from 30% to 11%, and women went from 48% to 24%.
“One big problem is that marriage is less likely to be on their horizon than it was for young men in 1980 and earlier,” Wilcox said. “Men who are married or are planning on marrying soon work harder, smarter, and more successfully. So delayed and foregone marriage is one factor robbing today’s young men of a sense of mission and ambition at work and in life.”
That lack in a sense of mission is detailed by the other adulthood indicators.
At the age of 25, men’s financial independence has dropped from 77% to 64% since 1980. The share of men who have moved out of their parent’s house has also declined from 81% to 64%. Similarly, the percentage of young men who hold a full-time job has dropped from 85% to 71%.
While 25-year-old women’s financial independence in 2021 is still lower than their male counterparts, it has grown from 50% in 1980 to 56% in 2021. Women are also more likely to have moved out of their parent’s house than men in 2021, with 72% having done so. That is a decrease from 87% in 1980.
Some of the reasons for delays may be the sharp increase in college attendance compared to 1980. In 2021, nearly half of 21-year-olds attend college, whereas only 31% did the same in 1980. College graduation rates are another indicator in which women are
outpacing men
.
“This is partly because the electronic opiates [men] have access to, in the form of gaming for instance, are more likely to distract them from school and get them off track,” Wilcox explained.
There has also been a cultural shift in parenting, where an emphasis on education and financial success has increased as the importance of family has decreased.
According to Pew
research
from January, a large majority, 88%, of parents prioritize work and money for their children, while very few, 20-21%, believe marriage and children are important milestones.
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Even more telling for the cultural trend, which Wilcox and Institute for Family Studies editor Alysse ElHage
called
“disturbing,” is that nearly half of parents did not believe that their child getting married and having children of their own was important.
“It should trouble all of us that only a minority of parents would also see marriage and family life as central goals, and even more so that nearly 50% would say that marriage and parenthood are basically unimportant,” they wrote.
