Marriage Matters

When Daniel Patrick Moynihan wrote The Negro Family: The Case for National Action, he was alarmed that the percentage of black children born to unmarried mothers had risen from 16% in 1940 to 24% in 1963. But that turned out to be the canary in the coal mine of a national trend. The percentage of white children born to unmarried mothers has risen from 15% in 1990 to 28% today. Overall, 40% of all children born in the United States today are born outside of marriage. This rise in unwed births should not be surprising. More adults live in unmarried households today than at any other time in the nation's history. Fewer Americans are getting married, and they are doing so at a later age. What was once the gateway to adulthood is now just another choice on the menu of life.