CLARKSBURG, W.Va. (WBOY) — Marriage rates are declining in all but five states according to a new study.
The Quote Wizard study found that overall, marriage rates in the United States have declined by 8% since 2011, and that during the same period, the divorce rate dropped 17%, suggesting that while fewer people are choosing to get married, those who do are opting to stay together.
The study also found that West Virginia, Arkansas and Maine had the highest percentages of divorces in the union, whereas Utah, Idaho and Wyoming had the highest percentage of marriages.
It also found that more than one-third of people in the United States have never married. The states with the highest percentages of people who have never been married are New York, California and Massachusetts.
The study did not include people who are widowed.
In West Virginia, 49% of people are married, right on track with the national average, 13% were divorced—two percent higher than the national average—and 29% had never been married.
Nationwide, the study found that marriage rates have dropped since 2011 in every state but five: Colorado, where it increased by 6%; Mississippi, where it increased by 1%; Montana, where it increased by 7%; New Jersey, where it neither increased nor decreased and Utah, where it increased by 7%.
The study used U.S. Census data from 2011 and 2020.
