Title: How Marriages Have Changed Over The Last 100 Years
Headings: How Marriages Have Changed Over The Last 100 Years
How Marriages Have Changed Over The Last 100 Years
The reason for marrying began to shift
The marriage rate and the Great Depression
The "golden age of marriage" wasn't really so golden
The case for Loving
The start of voluntarily childless marriages
The waiting game
The "rise in cohabitation" versus marriage
The inclusion of same-sex couples
The marriage rate is back on the decline
So, is marriage going extinct?

Content: Women, on average, were walking down the aisle at just 20 years old and men were between the ages of 22 and 23. If you can't remember a time when people married so young, this is because all of this changed when the 1980s came around. For the first time in over 90 years, women were getting married at the average age of 22. This number would continue to creep upward throughout each decade that spanned further and further into the twentieth century. And, by 2010, women had decided to wait until the average age of 26 to get married. Men averaged two years older at 28. These days, a 20-year-old bride or a 22-year-old groom would be quite the rarity. The "rise in cohabitation" versus marriage
Getty Images
Divorce rates have decreased since the 1980s, yet nearly 50 percent of all marriages still end in divorce. The boom of divorces pre-1980, as well as the less-than-favorable current odds, have scared some people away from the idea of marriage. Robert Emery, a psychology professor at the University of Virginia told the school's publication, "It makes young people today less secure in the idea of committing to and being in a lasting marriage.