by Daniel T. Lichter and Zhenchao Qian

The following excerpt is from the report, Marriage and Family in a Multiracial Society, published by the Russell Sage Foundation and the Population Reference Bureau. This report is one of several in the new series, "The American People," which sets the results of Census 2000 in context and collectively provides a portrait of the American people in a new century. Each report is written by an author or team of authors selected for their expertise with the data and their broad understanding of the implications of demographic trends. For information on the series, go to www.prb.org/AmericanPeople. The full report is available through the PRB online store.

(December 2004) Young Americans today are not especially anxious to rush into marriage. In 1980, nearly one-half of women and one-third of men ages 20 to 24 were or had been married. Nearly 80 percent of women and 68 percent of men ages 25 to 29 had married. By 2000, 63 percent of women and 52 percent of men had married. Women marry earlier than men. Generally, men catch up at later ages, perhaps as they become more secure financially. Clearly, young men and women in their 20s are much less likely to tie the knot today; most wait to marry until they have finished school and established themselves in their jobs, usually by their late 20s.

We begin our discussion of racial diversity in marriage timing by examining broad racial and ethnic trends in delayed marriage. Not surprisingly, the overall U.S. trend directly reflects continuing delays in marriage among non-Hispanic whites. Only 38 percent of black women ages 25 to 29 had ever been married in 2000 (see table). This is a large decline from 1980, when 63 percent of black women had married. African American women continued to have a sharper downward trend in marriage than women from other racial groups. The drop among Asian women ages 25 to 29 was also very rapid over this period, from 76 percent to 59 percent. Yet, in 2000, 81 percent of Asian women ages 30 to 34 had married. For black women, on the other hand, the percentage ever married was still very low by ages 30 to 34—56 percent, compared with the national figure of 79 percent.

Percent of Women Ever Married by Age and Race/Ethnicity, 1980 and 2000

	White		Black		Hispanic		Asian		American Indian
Age group	1980	2000	1980	2000	1980	2000	1980	2000	1980	2000
All	72	72	58	51	69	66	71	68	68	62
15–19	9	5	5	5	13	10	5	5	12	6
20–24	52	33	33	17	55	42	39	23	54	33
25–29	81	68	63	38	80	68	76	59	79	58
30–34	91	83	78	56	89	80	89	81	90	73
35–39	95	89	86	66	92	85	92	89	93	79
40–44	96	91	89	72	93	88	93	92	94	85
45–49	96	93	92	80	93	91	95	94	95	89
50–54	96	95	93	85	94	92	95	94	96	92

Source: Authors' calculations using the Integrated Public Use Microdata Series (IPUMS), 2003.

Today, Hispanics wed much earlier than other racial and ethnic groups. But like other groups over the last 20 years, Hispanics are also significantly delaying marriage. In 2000, about 10 percent of Hispanic female teenagers had married, compared with 6 percent of all female teens. Moreover, 42 percent of Hispanic women had married by ages 20 to 24, a figure higher than any racial or ethnic group considered here. For these age ranges, there is little evidence of convergence with the marital patterns of white women, and it seems that age patterns of marital timing have diverged between Hispanic women and white women. By ages 30 to 34, however, the percentages of white women and Asian women who had married were similar to the rate for Hispanic women.

The potential impact on American society of rapid increases in the Asian American and Hispanic populations is magnified by the growing diversity of these groups in their countries of origin. The diverse experiences of these ethnic groups are clearly reflected in their marriage patterns. Of the various Asian American populations, Japanese, Korean, and Chinese women had the lowest percentages of 15-to-24-year-olds in 2000 who were currently married or had been married (see Table 2, page 12). However, the percentage of these groups who were ever married converges with other Asian ethnic groups by ages 45 to 54. In other words, Japanese, Koreans, and Chinese delayed marriage to a greater extent than other Asians. Japanese men are the exception to this marriage delay. The percentage of Japanese men who had gotten married by ages 45 to 54 was high (84 percent) but remained considerably lower than the rate for other groups.

In contrast, Asian Indians marry at much earlier ages than other Asian Americans. Among Asian Indians in 2000, about one-quarter of women ages 15 to 24 were married, as were 63 percent of men and 84 percent of women ages 25 to 34, and 97 percent of men and women ages 45 to 54. This may reflect the prominent role that parents play in Asian Indian families, especially in arranging marriages for their children.¹ Asian Indians consist of mostly first- and second-generation Americans, who maintain strong cultural traditions and family unity. But the historical experiences of other immigrant populations suggest that this pattern of early marriage among Asian Indians is likely to shift as the children of today's second generation grow into adulthood and cast aside cultural prescriptions regarding traditional mate selection practices favored by their parents and grandparents.

Regardless of country of origin, most Hispanics marry at earlier ages than Asians. The percentage married is particularly high for Mexicans ages 15 to 24. For this age group, 19 percent of men and 29 percent of women were already married in 2000. In contrast, Puerto Ricans had the lowest percentage ever married for every age group. These percentages are closer to those of African Americans than to other Hispanic groups, because Puerto Ricans and blacks share similar social and economic disadvantages.

Daniel T. Lichter is the Robert F. Lazarus Professor in population studies and professor of sociology at The Ohio State University. Zhenchao Qian is associate professor of sociology and research associate of the Initiative in Population Research at The Ohio State University.

Reference

1. Jean Bacon, Life Lines: Community, Family, and Assimilation Among Asian Indian Immigrants (Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, 1996); and Johanna Lessinger, From the Ganges to the Hudson: Indian Immigrants in New York City (Boston: Allen and Bacon, 1995).