MPR News with Angela Davis

More people are saying 'knot yet' and waiting to marry later in life

two gold rings on paper
Fewer people are marrying across the U.S. and they're doing it later in life.
Sandy Millar for Unsplash

There’s a shift in marriage trends across the country. A new study found Americans are getting married later in life, often waiting until the age of 40.

Marriage also has become less common. The number of people who’ve never married has doubled since 1960. Fewer people are getting divorced and remarrying. There’s a change in attitude about rushing to the altar to tie the knot, but does your age determine whether your marriage will truly succeed?  

Listen to a rebroadcast of MPR News host Angela Davis’ conversation about marriage trends. Researchers are seeing more delayed marriages, a decline in divorce rates and more people going to marriage therapy.

host talks with marriage expert
MPR News host Angela Davis talks to Bill Doherty, a marriage therapist and a family social science professor at the University of Minnesota in an MPR News studio in St. Paul on Aug. 15.
Matthew Alvarez | MPR News

Guests 

  • Helen Fisher is a biological anthropologist, a senior research fellow at The Kinsey Institute and chief science advisor to Match.com. Fisher studies the human brain through a scanning process to study the neural systems associated with sex drive, romantic love, attachment, rejection, love addiction, long-term partnership happiness and the biological foundations of human personality. She has also written six books on the evolution and future of human partnerships.

  • Bill Doherty is a marriage therapist and a professor in the Department of Family Social Science in the College of Education and Human Development at the University of Minnesota. His areas of focus include marriage and divorce.

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Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation.