Kinless at Christmas
Alysse ElHage and Brad Wilcox at Deseret News:
In fact, starting in the past decade, the share of “kinless” prime-aged (18-55) adults — defined here as those who are never married and have no children in the home — exceeded the share of Americans who are married with children for the first time in our nation’s history.
This trend is an indication of what we have called “the closing of the American heart,” as fewer young adults take the plunge, get married and start a family. Among the many reasons for the decline in marriage is that more and more young men and women are prioritizing a “Midas Mindset” over a “Marriage Mindset” — that is, focusing on education and work like Taylor did, rather than on love and marriage. Consequently, a growing share of young women and men are slated to never marry. In fact, demographers project that a staggering share of today’s young adults — one in three — will never marry, as the Institute for Family Studies reported.
This decline in marriage is linked to the growing share of Americans who do not have children: in fact, more than 1 in 5 American 50-something adults have never had kids, according to Pew Research Center. Moreover, the share of younger Americans who don’t think they will ever be parents is growing. As Pew reports, “the share of U.S. adults younger than 50 without children who say they are unlikely to ever have kids rose 10 percentage points between 2018 and 2023 (from 37% to 47%).”
Demographer Lyman Stone projects that a record share of today’s young adults will never have children — probably about 1 in 4 men and women in their twenties now will go through life without ever having children.
The repercussions of a kinless future for more American adults extend far beyond a lonely holiday season for the growing share of women and men who have no immediate kin. As the family falls, loneliness rises, deaths of despair surge and the “pursuit of happiness” becomes more unattainable not just for individuals but communities across the nation. That’s because both marriage and parenthood are linked with increased mental and emotional well-being and better overall physical health for both men and women. And while many people today wrongly believe that a satisfying career and a good income are the keys to happiness, the No. 1 predictor of overall life satisfaction is how satisfied people are in their marriage. In fact, as “Get Married” notes, men and women who are happy in their marriages are 545% more likely to be happy in their lives than those who are unhappily married or those who are unmarried.
