More Marriages Lasting Longer

Though fewer people are getting married, more who do are sticking with it, census data shows. Some three-quarters of couples who wed after 1990 saw a 10-year anniversary—3 percentage points higher than those who wed in the early 1980s. That’s when the divorce rate reached its peak in the US, the Washington Post reports. The longer marriages are attributable in part to people getting hitched later in life, after they’ve finished their educations, sociologists say.

Older brides and grooms are more mature and more financially stable. “People seem to be finding a new marriage bargain that works for 21st-century couples,” notes one analyst. “It’s based on pooling two incomes, replacing the old breadwinner-homemaker bargain that worked well in the ’50s.” (More marriage stories.)