Friday, January 19, 2007

In 2005, the most recent year for which data is available, 49 percent of women 16 and over are married and living with their spouse; 3 percent are married but separated; 2 percent are married, but the spouse is absent (for example, in the military stationed abroad), 9 percent are widowed, 11 percent divorced, and the remaining 25 percent have never married. Although the Times article focused on single women, the figures for men are, not surprisingly, roughly similar: 53 percent are married and living with their spouse; only 2 percent, however, are widowed; 9 percent are divorced, and 31 percent never married, the remainder being separated or absent from their marriage partners.

In 1965, by contrast, almost two- thirds (65 percent) of women were married and living with their spouse. That figure has steadily declined since then, however: In 1970, the comparable figure was 60 percent; then it was 56 percent in 1980 and 53 percent in 1990. Although the Times did not report the comparable figures for men, they must be roughly similar and reflect the same downward trend.

Reflecting on these developments, a commentator quoted in the Times article observed that social policymakers should no longer assume that most people will spend most of their adult lives in marriage. That observation is perfectly sensible, since the large-scale social forces leading to the decline of marriage are not likely to change on their own. The larger, more difficult question is whether social policy should be designed to make it easier to be single, even if such policies have the effect of accelerating the marginalization of marriage. Or should policymakers respond to the decline of marriage by designing policies to encourage men and women to get married and stay that way.

Although we probably all know some woman or some man who is happy to be single -- who, like the women quoted in the Times, delights in not having to share the remote control or to pick up someone else's dirty socks -- there is reason to believe that such people are the exception, not the rule.

The Pew Research Center released a study last February about the demographic and lifestyle factors that correlate with happiness and unhappiness. Entitled "Are We Happy Yet?," the study relied on a survey of approximately 3000 American adults who were asked to rate how happy they felt and to provide some descriptive information about themselves (such as their race, sex, marital status, income and so on).

The results of the happiness survey provide good reason to be concerned about the trends reported by the Census Bureau. Among the most significant findings was the discovery that married people are substantially happier than the unmarried. 43 percent of married people -- the figure is the same for men and women -- report themselves as being "very happy," while only 24 percent of unmarried men and women say the same. Moreover, single parents of minor children report being significantly more unhappy than their married counterparts: 27 percent of the single parents say they are "very unhappy," while only eight percent of the married parents report an equal level of unhappiness.

The results of the Pew study are in line with the results of a large and growing body of social science research, which indicates that, in general, there are significant benefits for men and women to being married and significant disadvantages to being single.

But if marriage is so good for us, why is it on the decline, as the Census data suggest? One might ask the same question about being thin and getting enough exercise.

Everyone knows that extra pounds bring additional health risks, but the average American waistline continues to expand alarmingly.

Such large-scale societal trends as these are typically the product of large-scale social forces, which create short-term incentives for doing what is not in our long-term best interest. Rather than celebrate the increasing number of single-person households, policymakers should recognize instead the fragility of marriage as a social institution and seek ways to encourage women and men to embrace it once more.

Joseph R. Reisert is an associate professor of American Constitutional Law and chairman of the Department of Government at Colby College in Waterville.