Where unmarried Americans live
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Searching for a partner? Consider Baltimore, the Bronx or Washington, D.C. — three areas with especially high shares of unmarried 20-and-older residents.
Why it matters: More Americans are delaying or foregoing marriage for a host of reasons, but it remains a bedrock of U.S. socioeconomic life and a strong predictor of happiness.
By the numbers: Baltimore, the Bronx and Washington, D.C. have the highest rates of unmarried 20-and-older residents among U.S. counties with at least 250,000 such residents overall.
- 74% of Baltimore's approximately 440,800 20-and-up residents are unmarried, compared to the national figure of 49.1%, per the latest census data.
- 71.9% of the 1.03 million Bronx residents in that age group, meanwhile, are unmarried — as are 69.3% of Washington, D.C.'s 529,000 residents 20 and up.
How it works: These figures include people who have never been married, plus those who were married at one point but have since gotten divorced or separated, or have been widowed.
Between the lines: Marriage rates are tied to a variety of socioeconomic factors, including income, employment, education and more — though there's some debate among social scientists over exactly how that all plays out.
- The modern era's historically low marriage rates can also be understood as a reflection of women's decreasing reliance on men compared to past decades.
- It was only 50 years ago that women needed a husband or male relative to co-sign with them for a loan or credit card, for instance.
The latest: The Trump administration is prioritizing at least some investment in communities with higher-than-average marriage and birth rates — an effort that's perhaps tied to Trump ally Elon Musk's long-standing fixation on falling birthrates.
