ArticleDemography2020
Marriage and Union Formation in the United States: Recent Trends Across Racial Groups and Economic Backgrounds.
Article in Demography, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 16 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
16 citing papers in PubMed, 121 citations in OpenAlex.
- Marriage, Wealth, and the Spread of Cohabitation in Canada.The British journal of sociology · 2026Article
- Marriage and Cancer Risk: A Contemporary Population-Based Study Across Demographic Groups and Cancer Types.Cancer research communications · 2026Article
- Facial transplantation in emerging adulthood: characterizing challenges and opportunities to support optimal outcomes.Frontiers in transplantation · 2026Article
- Non-cohabiting Partners' Economic Characteristics and the Transition to Living Together in Germany: A Couple-Level Perspective.European journal of population = Revue europeenne de demographie · 2025Article
- We Gon' Be Alright: Examining Culturally Relevant Coping Strategies as Promotive Factors for Black Romantic Relationships.Family process · 2025Article
- Marital status, brain health, and cognitive reserve among diverse older adults.Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society : JINS · 2025Article
- Patterns of Singlehood, Cohabitation, and Marriage in Early Adulthood in Relation to Well-being in Established Adulthood.Research in human development · 2024Article
- What is driving the global decline of human fertility? Need for a multidisciplinary approach to the underlying mechanisms.Frontiers in reproductive health · 2024Review
- Article
- Childhood Family Instability and Young-Adult Union Experiences: Black-White Differences in Outcomes and Effects.Demography · 2023Article
- Stability and Relevance of Marriage Desires: Importance of Age Norms and Partnering Opportunities.Journal of marriage and the family · 2023Article
- US trends in social isolation, social engagement, and companionship ⎯ nationally and by age, sex, race/ethnicity, family income, and work hours, 2003-2020.SSM - population health · 2023Article
- The Rising Midlife First Marriage Rate in the U.S.Journal of marriage and the family · 2022Article
- Who is the "She" in the Pandemic "She-Cession"? Variation in COVID-19 Labor Market Outcomes by Gender and Family Status.Population research and policy review · 2022Article
- Who's Doing the Housework and Childcare in America Now? Differential Convergence in Twenty-First-Century Gender Gaps in Home Tasks.Socius : sociological research for a dynamic worldArticle
- Race, class, and marriage: Components of race differences in men's first marriage rates, United States, 1960-2019.Demographic researchArticle
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors at 1 institution in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Family formation in the United States has changed dramatically: marriage has become less common, nonmarital cohabitation has become more common, and racial and economic inequalities in these experiences have increased. We provide insights into recent U.S. trends by presenting cohort estimates for people born between 1970 and 1997, who began forming unions between 1985 and 2015. Using Panel Study of Income Dynamics data, we find that typical ages at marriage and union formation increased faster across these recent cohorts than across cohorts born between 1940 and 1969. As fewer people married at young ages, more cohabited, but the substitution was incomplete. We project steep declines in the probability of ever marrying, declines that are larger among Black people than White people. We provide novel information on the intergenerational nature of family inequalities by measuring parental income, wealth, education, and occupational prestige. Marriage declines are particularly steep among people from low-income backgrounds. Black people are overrepresented in this low-income group because of discrimination and opportunity denial. However, marriage declines are larger among Black people than White people across parental incomes. Further, most racial differences in marriage occur among people from similar socioeconomic backgrounds. Family inequalities increasingly reflect both economic inequalities and broader racial inequalities generated by racist structures; in turn, family inequalities may prolong these other inequalities across generations.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.