We’ve been having all the conversations about marraige and stuff lately, and I was wondering, what percentage of the population don’t ever get married?
Just in case you guys were wondering, this was a serious question.
Tough one to get an (easy) answer for. I give up 
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Without scouring death certificates this US census table may be as close as you will get, it shows 3.6% of women over the age of 65 have never married and 4.4% of men in the same age group. The combined total is 3.9%
Of course people die early and if rich enough any 90 year old can find a young golddigger if they so desire 
96% of people get married. Presumably the remaining 4% are celibate members of the clergy, gays, and die hard bachelors who will never settle down.
Hey, don’t forget the nuns, cat ladies, and spinsters who will never settle down!
Some of the minority of legally unmarried folks are perhaps gay, and thus can’t (in most places) legally marry. Some others may be de facto married (long-term live-in partenrs) without the benefit of the marriage certificate.
I understand the OP to be asking how many people who of their own choice elect to go without long-term partners for their entire lives.
If we take the 4% given in earlier posts and subtract hetero- and homosexuals with long-term live-in partners (those who are de facto “married”), then the number drops (by my SWAG) VERY significantly. Who would remain? Roman Catholic clergy (priests and nuns), and those who wouldn’t or couldn’t get hooked up for social or physical reasons.
We can only estimate the number of gay people, but I think it safe to say there are more than half a dozen of them. Maybe 3%, out of the 4 % from earlier? This leaves 1% of the US census’ed population.
This leaves Catholic clergy and those who can’t get hooked up for a long-term gig. In the latter category, there are unfortunates who due to disability (i.e. … no fault of their own) are ineligible for life for long term relationships. This includes those with severe mental and physical deficiencies, and (there’s no other way to put it) the chronically ugly. All of thses folks in this paragraph take a big chunck out of the remaining 1%.
So: How many people freely choose to never get into a long-term cohabitational relationship for their entire lives? Really, realy, really few.
96%?!?!?
I’m part of 4% of the population? Wow! Finally, I’m a minority.
So. When’s the persecution start?
OK, now I’m curious…
supposedly 10% of the population is gay. So that means that the majority of gay people have been married? Am I interpreting this correctly?
I’ve heard that there are a number of gay people who do get married, for one reason or another, only to later come out of the closet.
The 96% figure is a little misleading. It appears to be pretty close to an upper bound on the actual percentage of people who have never been married. Certainly some poeple die before they’ve reached the ripe old age of 65, and thus don’t factor in.
Also, and I don’t think this is what the OP was asking, exactly, 96% is not the current percentage of people who never have been married, it is the percentage of people who get to a (relatively old age) never having been married. The percentage in the general population is certainly lower. I’m sure someone who is better at statistics than I will chime in with how much effect each of these points have.
“A number” of them I can accept. But the statistics would appear to suggest a majority.
FYI, not everyone who doesn’t marry is unmarried for religious reasons.
I, for one, am not a cloistered nun (nor a RC priest) and I have no intention of ever marrying.
I think the figures in 30 years time will be very different. To use the gay example, if you wanted to get ahead in business in the past (other than in something arty) it really helped to have a wife. Being out was career and social suicide. I know members of my family were caught up in this.
Women also did not have a career structure, decent wages or access to pension plans so really needed a husband for security and housing. My mother only married her second husband because his multinational company sent him overseas and they would not pay for her to go as his de-facto.
There are many reasons why people have married in the past that no longer apply thank goodness.
I have no intention of ever getting married, but I’m only 17.
I’ve thought about this, and I’m 99.55% sure about this, but again, I’m only 17.
I’m not chronically ugly, and have had a couple of long term relationships (3+ months) so far, I’m just never getting married.
But what proportion of the population thought they were never getting married at the age of 17 and either later decided they wanted to get married or were forced into it by various pressures?
What are my chances of ending up married regardless of my current opinions?
The second you go on vacation and they slap a “single room supplement” on you. Double insult if you get lucky and end up bringing a guest back to your room.
96%
According to that table, 11% of people hit their late 40’s without ever being married. I imagine many of them probably think they’ll never get married at that point. But 2/3 of them do manage to pull it off. So remember, there’s always hope.
Even better is the 100,000 people who get married in their 70’s for the first time!
i woulkd dissagree with the comments on here about marriage.
marriage like everything else in life changes as time progresses. I would think that its more than 3-4% that said; many more people today are staying single because of situations such as financial, being too indepandant , very picky, and the fear of divorce!..the divore rate today is high, the latest numbers i hear is around 50% … Back in the old days, i would agree that those numbers are correct. But in modern soceity, those numbers will grow.
Reemember, marriage is a huge deciscion in your life…Not saying too look for perfection, but you have to be some-what choosy today.
Do yourself a favor and write that down so you can use it when your heart is tempting you into doing something you know you don’t really want. I have been married but that is the end of that experiment forever and I would not have ever done it in the first place if I knew then what I know now. You have common sense. Some of us have to learn it the hard way.