Marriage In The United States
Marriage has traditionally been an important part of American society.
In the early 18th century, rarely did individuals look beyond fairness, kindliness, and good temper in a potential mate.
Marriage laws have changed over the course of United States history, including the removal of bans on interracial marriage. In the twenty first century laws have been passed enabling same-sex marriages in several states.
According to the United States Census Bureau, 2,077,000 marriages occurred in the United States in 2009. The median age for the first marriage of an American has increased in recent years; The median age in the early 1970s was 21 for women and 23 for men, and had risen to 26 for women and 28 for men by 2009.
Marriages in the United States differ in a variety of ways. The differences range in aspects such as religion, the type of marriage, residential patterns, and reasons for marriages. Reasons for marriage may stem from a desire to have children, love, or economic security. There are individuals who may use marriage as a way to acquire a green card; the Immigration Marriage Fraud Amendments of 1986 established laws to avoid such instances. In 2003, 184,741 immigrants were admitted as spouses of United States citizens.
If a marriage fails, divorce is an option. Laws vary from state to state, and address the division of property, child support, and other legal issues. "Married adults now divorce two-and-a-half times as often as adults did 20 years ago and four times as often as they did 50 years ago... between 40% and 60% of new marriages will eventually end in divorce. The probability within... the first five years is 20%, and the probability of its ending within the first 10 years is 33%... Perhaps 25% of children ages 16 and under live with a stepparent." As of 2009, first marriages which ended in divorce lasted a median of 8 years for both men and women. The median time to separation from first marriages was about 7 years.
Other than marriage, there are three types of relevant unions in the United States: civil unions, domestic partnerships, and cohabitation. A civil union is "a formal union between two people of the same or of different genders which results in, but falls short of, marriage-like rights and obligations." In the U.S., domestic partnership is a city-, county-, state-, or employer-recognized status that may be available to same-sex couples and, sometimes, heterosexual couples. Cohabitation is when two unmarried people who are in an intimate relationship live together.
Read more about Marriage In The United States: History, Demographics, Projection of Family Composition To 2030, Wedding Ceremonies, Law, Green Card Marriages, Divorce, See Also
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—Beatrice Gottlieb, U.S. historian. The Family in the Western World from the Black Death to the Industrial Age, ch. 12, Oxford University Press (1993)
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—Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865)