PPlanet Out
SUMMARY: Fewer and fewer Americans are settling down in "traditional" heterosexual family units, according to the latest Census data.
The once-traditional nuclear family continues to decline in America, with more unmarried couples -- both gay and straight -- sharing a home and a greater number of people choosing to live alone, the Census Bureau said on Tuesday.
According to figures released from the 2000 census, the households consisting of a married couple with children under 18 dropped to 23.5 percent of the total from 25.6 percent in 1990, and 45 percent four decades ago.
The number of single-person households amounted to 26 percent of the total. Those in which unmarried people -- with or without children -- were living as couples rose by 72 percent to 5.47 million in 2000 from 3.19 million in 1990.
Married-couple households dropped from 55 percent to 52 percent of all homes from the last census.
The latest statistics from the 2000 Census redefine the American household, with the number of Americans living alone surpassing traditional nuclear families in number.
In 1940, less than 8 percent of all households were made up of people living alone compared to nearly a quarter in 2000.
The shift in living arrangements was reflected in the nation's average household size, which hit a record low last year of 2.59 people from 2.63 a decade earlier.
"What we are seeing now represents a continuation of the trends from the past 40 years," said Census Bureau demographer Campbell Gibson.
In 1960, the typical American household would have been a married couple with children under 18 at home. A much more diverse picture has now emerged, Gibson said.
Marriage Later in Life
Demographers attribute the shift from the traditional nuclear family to several factors, such as couples delaying marriage and having children later, a higher divorce rate and a growth in single parent families.
Both men and women are getting married later in life with the median age of first marriage going up since 1960 from aged 22 to 27 for men and for women from 20 to 25 years old.
The number of families led by women with no husband present grew nearly three times faster in the 1990s than the number of married couples with children.
The Family Research Council, which promotes the traditional nuclear family and is opposed to people living together before marriage, said the latest census results showed an "alarming trend" in family structures.
"We need to discourage people from living together outside of marriage and encourage them to have children within marriage," said Bridget Maher, a policy analyst at the Family Research Council.
However, interest groups representing single people said the census figures showed that people were no longer rushing to the altar and that America had to adapt to a changing society.
The Alternatives to Marriage Project (ATMP), a non-profit group for unmarried people, said it was clear cohabiting had been transformed from "something scandalous" to something most people do before they married or instead of marrying.
"The fairy tales misled us. Getting married isn't the only way to live happily ever after,'' said ATMP executive director Dorian Solot. "The truth is that some princes stay single. Some princesses are lesbians. And there are cohabitors living throughout the kingdom.''
Other groups representing single people said they hoped corporate America, which still pampered married couples, would grasp the changing face of households.
"Businesses that continue to cater almost exclusively to married couples have lost sight of the changing demographics of this country and they may get lost in the dust of the companies who do recognize the face of the future," said Bella DePaulo, a leading member of the American Association for Single People.
Return toTBC GLBT News
http://tampabaycoalition.homestead.com/News.html
Copyright © 1995-1999 PlanetOut Corporation. All Copyright & Trademark Rights Reserved.
Help | About PlanetOut | Ad Info | Privacy Statement | Tell us what you think - Send us feedback!