Disquieting truth about the future: New data on marriage breakdown today spells trouble for all of us tomorrow

Ryan Streeter
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The National Marriage Project, headed by the able Brad Wilcox at the University of Virginia, has released it's third "Marriage Matters" report. The annual study has become the leading authoritative source on the state of family formation habits in America.

Two findings jump out when you open the report:

1. Family instability is still rising at alarming rates. Only 55% of 16 year olds live with both of their parents, compared to 66% in the early 1980s. That's a stunning figure. Given what we know about the additional social and economic challenges young people experience through family breakdown, this makes tomorrow all the harder for them.
2. Children are now more likely to experience cohabitation than divorce. This may not sound bad, but the effects of cohabitation are far worse on kids than we typically think. The breakup rate for cohabiting couples with children is 170% higher than married couples. This is uncomfortable since we all have cohabiting friends or are cohabitors ourselves, but the reality is that marriage is so statistically better for children that there's hardly an argument.

The release for the report is here, and the executive summary is here.