Statistics

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General
Domestic partner benefits
Economy
Education
Health insurance
Living single
Living together
Parenting
Public opinion
Race and ethnicity
Voting

General

There are 112 million unmarried people over age 18 in the U.S., representing nearly 47% of the adult population. U.S. Census Bureau. (as of 2012)

In 2010, unmarried households were 45% of all U.S. households. – U.S. Census Bureau. “America’s Families and Living Arrangements: 2010”

44.9% of the unmarried population aged 18 and older are female. For every 100 unmarried women there are 88 unmarried men. -U.S. Census Bureau. “America’s Families and Living Arrangements: 2010”

23.0% of the unmarried population aged 18 and older are people of color and 77.0% are white. While a clear majority of the unmarried population is white, it is considerably more racially diverse than the married population. – U.S. Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey (CPS), 2007.

39.2% of the unmarried population aged 18 and older were formerly married and 60.8% have always been single – U.S. Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey (CPS), 2008.

8.9% of the married adult population is aged 18-29 years, compared to 33.7% of the unmarried adult population, while 3.2% of the married adult population is aged 80 years or over, compared to 6.5% of the unmarried adult population. – U.S. Census Bureau. American Community Survey: 2005.

49.9% of the married population are women, compared to 56.4% of unmarried population. – U.S. Census Bureau. American Community Survey: 2005.

Chart 1: Marital Status of American Adults (Chart 1 sources: Marital status data for 1890 – 1970 from U.S. Census Bureau, Historical Abstracts of the United States, Colonial Times to 1970,Series A 160-171, 1989. Data for 1980 -2000 from U.S. Census Bureau, MS-1. “Marital Status of the Population 15 Years and Over, by Sex and Race: 1950 to Present.” 2001.)

The average American spends the majority of his or her life unmarried. – Kreider, Rose and Jason Fields. 2002. “Number, Timing, and Duration of Marriages and Divorces: 1996.” Current Population Reports.

68% of divorced or widowed Americans plan to remain unmarried. – Gallup. 2006.

There are more than 56 million American adults who have always been single, representing roughly 60% of the adult unmarried population. – U.S. Census Bureau. “America’s Families and Living Arrangements: 2007.”

In 2008, 29.4% of men and 22.7% of women ages 18 and over had never married. – U.S. Census Bureau. “America’s Families and Living Arrangements: 2008.”

Chart 2: Median Age at First Marriage (Chart 2 sources: Age data from the U. S. Bureau of the Census, Current Population Reports (2000), “Estimated Age at First Marriage”)

Domestic Partner Benefits

At least 9,390 employers in the U.S. offer domestic partner health benefits for their employees. Of these, 95% offer the benefits to both same-sex and different-sex partners. – Human Rights Campaign website. 2006. – Human Rights Campaign. “State of the Workplace: 2004.”

More than 25% of Americans work for an employer that offers domestic partner benefits. – U.S. Census Bureau. “County Business Patterns: 2000.”

The more successful the company, the greater the chance that it will offer domestic partner benefits. 51% percent of Fortune 500 companies offer domestic partner health benefits, as do 80% of the Fortune 50. – Human Rights Campaign. “State of the Workplace: 2006.”

A 2005 Hewitt Associates study revealed that the majority of employers experience a total benefits cost increase of less than 1%. – Human Rights Campaign. “State of the Workplace: 2006.”

Economy

There are more than 56 million unmarried American workers, representing roughly 40% of the workforce. – U.S. Department of State. 2005. “Income and Employment Statistics.”

Annually, unmarried Americans contribute more than $2 trillion to the economy. – U.S. Department of Labor. 2006. “Consumer Expenditure Survey.”

38.6% of unmarried households have incomes under $30K, 21.6% between $30K-50K, 17.6% between $50K-75K, and 22.2% over $75K. – U.S. Census Bureau. American Community Survey: 2005.

Education

40.9% of the married population have a high-school diploma or less, compared to 49.4% of the unmarried population, while 30.1% of the married population have a bachelor’s degree or higher, compared to 19.7% of the unmarried population. – U.S. Census Bureau. American Community Survey: 2005.

Health Insurance

46.5% of those not in the labor force and 60.4% of the unemployed are unmarried, while 40.5% of the employed are unmarried. – U.S. Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey (CPS), 2008.

Among those not in the labor force, unmarried people account for the minority of the insured (43.7%) and the majority of the uninsured (56.4%). – CPS, 2008.

Among the employed, unmarried people account for the minority of the insured (36.4%) and the majority of the uninsured (59.7%). – CPS, 2008

Among the unemployed, unmarried people account for the majority of both the insured (52.5%) and the uninsured (71.4%), further indicating a correlation between employment status and marital status. – CPS, 2008.

61.5% of insured adults aged 18-64 are married, compared to 38.5% unmarried, while 40.2% of uninsured adults aged 18-64 are married, compared to 59.8% unmarried. – CPS, 2008.

86.3% of married adults aged 18-64 years are insured, compared to 72.5% of unmarried adults, while 13.7% of married adults aged 18-64 years are uninsured, compared to 27.5% of unmarried adults. – CPS, 2008.

For Blacks, regardless of employment or insurance status, the majority is always unmarried. For whites, regardless of employment status, the unmarried always account for the minority of the insured and the majority of the uninsured. – CPS, 2008.

Overall, unmarried (divorced or never married) women aged 25-64 years are more likely to be uninsured (21%) than married women (13%) in the same age group. – Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 2008.

Poor married women are more likely to be uninsured than poor unmarried women, in part because they are less likely to have Medicaid coverage. – CDC, 2008.

Married women are more likely to have private insurance, and less likely to have Medicaid, than unmarried women. – CDC, 2008.

The probability of an offer of health insurance through an employer increases with family income for both married and unmarried women. – CDC, 2008.

Married women are less likely than unmarried women to be poor, but poor married women are more likely than poor unmarried women to be uninsured. – CDC, 2008.

More than two-thirds of women have family income at 200% of the federal poverty level or more.In this income group, unmarried women are more likely to be uninsured than married women. – CDC, 2008.

Even among those with family income at or above 400% of the federal poverty level, 8% of unmarried women are uninsured-almost three times the rate for married women. – CDC, 2008.

Unmarried women are almost four times as likely as married women to have Medicaid. – CDC, 2008.

Almost one-half (45%) of poor unmarried women have Medicaid compared with about one-quarter of poor married women. – CDC, 2008.

The percentages of both married and unmarried women with private insurance increase with family income. – CDC, 2008.

The percentage of women with their own offer of health insurance through an employer increases with increasing family income regardless of marital status. – CDC, 2008.

Married women are more likely to have an offer of health insurance through an employer than unmarried women, because they may have an offer either through their own workplace or that of their spouse. – CDC, 2008.

At all levels of family income, married women are less likely than unmarried women to have their own offer of private insurance through their employer. – CDC, 2008.

Living Single

As of 2000, the most common household type in the U.S. is a person living alone. – Hobbs, Frank. 2005. “Examining American Household Composition: 1990 and 2000.” U.S. Census Bureau.

There are more than 31 million one-person households in the U.S., representing roughly 27% of all households. – U.S. Census Bureau. “America’s Families and Living Arrangements: 2007.”

Living Together

Over 12 million unmarried partners live together in 6,008,007 households. – U.S. Census Bureau. “American Community Survey: 2005-2007.”

The number of cohabiting unmarried partners increased tenfold between 1960 and 2000. – U.S. Census Bureau. “America’s Families and Living Arrangements: 2000.”

The number of cohabiting unmarried partners increased by 88% between 1990 and 2007. – U.S. Census Bureau. “America’s Families and Living Arrangements: 2007.”

The majority of couples marrying today cohabited first. – Bumpass, Larry and Lu, Hsien-Hen. 2000. “Trends in Cohabitation and Implications for Children’s Family Contexts in the United States.” Population Studies, 54: 29-41.

About 75% of cohabiters plan to marry their partners. – Smock, Pamela. 2000. “Cohabitation in the United States.” Annual Review of Sociology.

55% of different-sex cohabiters do marry within five years of moving in together. 40% break up within that same time period. About 10% remain in an unmarried relationship for five years or more. – Smock, Pamela. 2000. “Cohabitation in the United States.” Annual Review of Sociology.

41% of American women aged 15-44 have cohabited at some point. – Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 2002. “Cohabitation, Marriage, Divorce, and Remarriage in the United States.” Vital Health and Statistics, 23; 22.

In 1995, 24% of women aged 25-34 were cohabiting, compared to 22% of women aged 35-39, and 15% of women aged 40-44. In every age group, the percentages have increased since 1987. – Bumpass, Larry and Lu, Hsien-Hen. 2000. “Trends in Cohabitation and Implications for Children’s Family Contexts in the United States.” Population Studies, 54: 29-41.

10.7% of the unmarried population report living together with unmarried partners. – U.S. Census Bureau. American Community Survey: 2005-2007.

12.8% of unmarried-partner households report being same-sex – U.S. Census Bureau. American Community Survey: 2005-2007.

Parenting

39.7% of all births are to unmarried women. – National Center for Health Statistics. 2007.

41% of first births by unmarried women are born to cohabiting partners. – Bumpass, Larry and Lu, Hsien-Hen. 2000. “Trends in Cohabitation and Implications for Children’s Family Contexts in the United States.” Population Studies, 54: 29-41.

About two-fifths of children are expected to live in a cohabiting household at some point. – U.S. Census Bureau. 2000.

In 2006, nearly 13 million unmarried American parents lived with their children. Among them, more than 80% were unmarried mothers. – U.S. Census Bureau. “America’s Families and Living Arrangements: 2007.”

In 2006, the percentage of American households headed by unmarried parents was nearly double the percentage in 1970. – U.S. Census Bureau. “America’s Families and Living Arrangements: 2007.”

Nearly 40% of opposite-sex, unmarried American households include children. – U.S. Census Bureau. “America’s Families and Living Arrangements: 2007.”

Nearly one-third of American grandparents who are responsible for their grandchildren are unmarried. – U.S. Census Bureau. “American Community Survey: 2005-2007.”

Public Opinion

In a 1995 Harris poll, 90% of people believed society “should value all types of families.” – Stephanie Coontz. 1997. The Way We Really Are: Coming to Terms With America’s Changing Families.

43% of Americans in their twenties believe that cohabiting couples should receive the same benefits as married couples. – Gallup. 2001.

45% of Americans in their twenties believe that government should not be involved in licensing marriage. – Gallup. 2001.

55% of Americans approve of men and women living together without being married. – Gallup. 2007.

57% of Americans consider an unmarried couple who have lived together for five years just as committed in their relationship as a married couple who have lived together for the same time. -Gallup. 2008.

The majority of Americans aged 18-64 consider living in unmarried households as having either no effect or a positive effect on children. – Gallup. 2008.

Race and ethnicity

In 2005, 69.5 percent of all births to non-Hispanic black women, 63.3 percent of births of American Indian or Alaskan native woman, and 47.9 percent of births to Hispanic women occurred outside of marriage, compared with 25.4 percent for non-Hispanic white women and 16.2 percent for Asian or Pacific Islander women. – Child Trends DataBank, 2007.

Black children are significantly less likely than other children to be living with two married parents. In 2006, 35 percent of black children were living with two parents, compared with 84 percent of Asian children, 76 percent of non-Hispanic white children, and 66 percent of Hispanic children. – Child Trends DataBank, 2007.

30.9% of Blacks are married, compared to 69.1% unmarried, while 7.5% of the married population is Black, compared to 19.8% of the unmarried population. – U.S. Census Bureau. American Community Survey: 2005-2007.

Voting

In 2004, more than one-third of voters in the presidential election were unmarried. – U.S. Census Bureau. “Voting and Registration in the Election of November 2004.”

In 2004, more than 55 million unmarried Americans were registered to vote. Among them, nearly 47 million actually voted. – Lake Research Partners and Women’s Voices, Women Vote. “Unmarried America, 2007: America’s New Majority.”