For the last half-century, the trend has been toward later – not earlier – marriage. The median age at first marriage is now 29 for men and 26 for women, an age that has risen steadily since the 1950s. Today’s young adults marry a full six years later than their counterparts did. As marriage ages have risen, marriage has also become less common and less stable. However, the rates of sexual activity outside of marriage are higher than ever before, and out-of-wedlock births now represent about 40% of all births. If marrying young would promote happier, healthier marriages, we as a society might do well to encourage people to tie the knot as soon as they can, do you think so? However, couples who cohabit before they get married do tend to be younger, and recent research suggests it is the age of the couple when they began living together – rather than the fact they cohabited – that most strongly predicted an eventual divorce. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/jay-fm/support