THIS week is Unmarried and Single Americans Week across the US, a tradition started in Ohio in the 1980s by the Buckeye Singles Council to “celebrate single life and recognize singles and their contributions to society.”
In Platte County, twice as many young people are unmarried now than when the holiday was founded, but not necessarily for reasons worth celebrating.
Last December, the Census Bureau released information comparing young adults (ages 18 to 34) from 1980 (the baby boomers), 1990, 2000 (generation X) and 2009-2013 (millennials). In Platte County, 33.2 percent of young baby boomers had never been married, while 60.4 percent of their children, the millennials, have never been married.
The average marrying age has been slowly increasing for decades, according to a June article in The Atlantic and experts list several reasons: changing gender dynamics, casual dating, more women earning advanced degrees and entering demanding careers and changing attitudes toward marriage. Those attitudes haven’t been measured on a county level, but one factor is—financial stability.
A Gallup poll found that 51 percent of millennials earning more than $75,000 a year were married, as opposed to 19 percent of those earning less than $30,000. The Allstate/Heartland Monitor poll found that 73 percent of young Americans want to wait until they are financially secure to get married and two-thirds said they would need to earn $50,000 to $100,000 to feel financially secure.
In Platte County, the median income for young adults is $30,468; their parents in 1980 were earning around $5,000 more using a figure calculated for inflation in 2013. Young adults in Platte County today are also 8.6 percent more likely to live with their parents and 4.7 percent more likely to live in poverty than their parents were in 1980.
While they’re not faring, as well as their parents, local young adults are doing marginally better than their peers nationwide. Nationally, 30.3 percent of young adults are living with their parents, compared to 28.6 percent in Platte County, and nationally, 19.7 percent are living in poverty, while in Platte County it’s 10.9 percent.
One area where local young adults fall behind is earning bachelor’s degrees. In 1980 14.5 percent of young baby boomers had earned a bachelor’s degree or higher, which was slightly lower than the national average of 15.7 percent. Today 22.3 percent of millennials in the US have received a bachelor’s degree, but in Platte County it’s only 14.8 percent.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics found that people 25 years and older who received a bachelor’s degree were less likely to be unemployed and more likely to earn more than counterparts with an associate degree or no higher education. But Beth Przymus, associate dean of students at Central Community College, said Columbus is unique with the amount of opportunities available to students without bachelor’s degrees.
“Platte County has a lot of high-paying, high-skills jobs that require training but not a bachelor’s degree,” Przymus said.
Przymus said the college has a number of students who transfer to a four-year institution. But many, due to financial constraints or their field of interest, enter the work force after receiving their associate degree or certification. That also doesn’t mean their education stops.
“In many fields, like in welding, advanced manufacturing and in the health care field, there are employers that when they get those people in their door, oftentimes they may help that student get an advanced degree and pay for them to get that bachelor’s,” Przymus said.
Two-thirds of young people said marriage was “still relevant and led to a happier, healthier, more fulfilled life.” That means one-third don’t prioritize marriage or maybe don’t even want to get married.
For the two-thirds who do but haven’t yet, it’s either a matter of money or a matter of time.