Marriage trends for the 2020s

Many people like to believe that something like marriage is stable, it is an immovable institution. That couldn’t be further from the truth. Just look at how the idea of ​​same-sex marriage in America morphed from outright margins to something that is legally accepted across the country. However, looking into the next decade, there are likely to be more changes in store. Here’s a look at some of the biggest potential marriage trends for the 2020s.

Divorce and marriage rates in the US have been declining, and that’s a trend you can only hope to continue. From 2000 to 2016, the marriage rate dropped from 8.2 to 6.9 per 1,000 people, and divorces dropped from 4.0 to 3.2. Expect similar size drops in the years to come, as people remain less likely to marry early due to issues like pursuing personal education and career paths, fighting debt levels and financial insecurities, and more.

Couples will marry later and potentially be more confident that they made the right decision and did so at a more mature and stable time in their lives. And on the other hand, more people will continue to get divorced later in their lives, as prioritizing happiness and personal fulfillment is something that more people are considering even after the children move or retire. The idea is called gray divorce, and while divorce rates are falling, gray divorces have doubled in recent decades.

For divorcing couples, one of the increasingly prevalent trends that will only increase is the handling of the man’s or woman’s best friend in the resulting legal challenge. Three states have already enacted laws that address the welfare perspective of a pet during a divorce, rather than treating the animal simply as property to be divided.

Another trend that will increasingly unfold on the divorce battlefield will be cryptocurrency. Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are already starting to show up in divorce fights for various reasons, including the difficulty or impossibility of tracking or proving financial assets that a person may be storing on that medium, as well as rapidly fluctuating values. assets can represent. As cryptocurrencies become even more common, they will become an even bigger problem to deal with.

Technology should be a great thing for a marriage, and in many ways it is. Consider video conferencing with a spouse while one person is away and the ability to sync calendars to easily stay on top of a person’s schedule. Yet at the same time, technology often gets in the way of relationships, either as a distraction preventing quality time or the risks and lures of everything from social media to dating apps. Technology will become more integrated into our lives than it already is, and its impact will continue to be felt on both sides of the spectrum.

The idea of ​​marriage or divorce may not go anywhere, but the way these seemingly stable institutions evolve and change is faster and more shocking than many would realize at first glance.