New Barna study reveals how family life is being re-written in modern America

While fewer Americans are married than in previous generations, the will to wed has not disappeared – whilst divorce, cohabitation and remarriage are reshaping family life, a study suggests.

The findings come from The State of Today’s Family, a report by faith-based research organisation Barna, produced as a part of its multi-year Flourishing Families Initiative.

Drawing on national polling, the study outlines five major shifts affecting relationships within the US and raising fresh challenges for churches and community leaders.

It found that just below half of American adults are currently married – 46% in Barna’s data, much like the US Census Bureau’s 51%. In 1950, roughly two-thirds of adults were married.

The decline is driven largely by a rise in individuals who have never married. Men now enter their first marriage at a median age of just over 30, and girls at about 29 — around eight years later than in 1950.

Researchers say this delay means singleness in maturity is becoming a big, and sometimes long, chapter of life relatively than a temporary prelude to marriage.

Nearly one in five adults (18%) report having previously experienced a wedding breakdown. Yet over half of those – 55% – have since remarried, helping to maintain the share of currently divorced adults relatively stable at nearly 10% over the past 20 years.

The pattern points to growing repeat marriage relatively than widespread rejection of the institution, the report notes, underscoring demand for church support each after divorce and as couples enter second or later marriages.

Only 8% of US adults currently share a house with a romantic partner outside marriage, in keeping with US census figures. That proportion has grown from almost zero in 1970 but still represents a minority.

Public opinion, nonetheless, has shifted sharply. Barna’s survey finds that 58% of adults — and 42% of Christians who live out their faith — view cohabiting before marriage as a “clever” step.

The organisation says the gap between church teaching and social norms is widening, forcing pastors to contemplate how they address couples who see moving in together as prudent relatively than controversial.

Furthermore, in the case of marital breakdown, Christian experiences broadly mirror those of the broader population. 

Around one in five non-practising Christians, and 16% of each practising Christians and non-Christians, say they’ve been divorced.

Christians who divorce are somewhat more prone to marry again: 58% report remarrying, compared with 55% of all adults.

As a result, Christians overall are still more regularly found to be married — a number of times — than people of other faiths or no faith.

Finally, young adults appear torn between valuing marriage and questioning its role. Barna reports that 81% of Gen Z respondents view marriage positively, a lower share than older generations but still a robust majority.

Among those that are single, 78% of Gen Z and 73% of Millennials say they hope to marry someday. Yet Gen Z is the least likely generation to deem marriage essential for raising children, suggesting a more flexible view of what constitutes a family.

As Millennials move into midlife, their marriage rates are climbing – 42% are currently married, with just 5% divorced – while Baby Boomers are the almost certainly to have experienced divorce, at 30%.

Barna’s research also turns the highlight on Protestant clergy. About nine in ten pastors are presently married — far higher than the national figure of roughly one in two adults — and just about all of them (97%) have been married at a while of their lives.

Nearly one in five (18%) of pastors say they’ve undergone a divorce — much like the overall population — but they’re significantly more inclined to remarry.

Nearly three-quarters (73%) of divorced pastors have wed again, leaving only 4% of pastors currently divorced.

The report concluded: “Marriage may look different today, however it stays a sacred aspiration woven into the lives of most adults, Christian or not. As cultural definitions shift, the Church’s opportunity shouldn’t be simply to defend marriage, but to disciple people toward healthy, enduring relationships that reflect God’s covenant love.”