The Institute for American Values and the National Center on African American Marriages and Parenting have partnered to establish The Marriage Index, a metric designed to measure the health of American marriages (not unlike how the Leading Economic Index put out by The Conference Board watches economic trends. Dr. Albert Mohler explains:
The Marriage Index is based on solid data and includes five major components: the percentage of adults ages 20-54 who are married, the percentage of married persons who are “very happy” with their marriage, the percentage of first marriages that are intact, the percentage of births to married parents, and the percentage of children living with their own married parents.
Some data Dr. Mohler sites from the 2008 Marriage Index report:
1. In 1970, 78.6 percent of adults age 20-54 were married. In 2008, it dropped to 57.2 percent. That’s a huge decline (over 25%).
2. In 1970, 67% of married Americans reported that their union was “very happy.” Today, the figure is 62%. A modest decline, but consider that many who are not happy more easily divorce today.
3. In 1970, 77.4 percent of first marriages were intact, but only 61.2 percent were intact in 2007. About a 20% decline.
4. Today, only 60.3 percent of all babies are born to married couples, compared to 89.3 percent in 1970. Wow. Breathtaking, when you think about the disadvantages children born out of wedlock inevitably experience.
5. In 1970, 68.7 percent of all children lived with their own mother and father. In 2007, that percentage had dropped to 61.0.
Read the rest of Dr. Mohler’s observations, or read the 36-page 2008 Marriage Index report.