How many people DON'T get married?

[Smeghead]

Zombie heads up: this is a 9-year-old thread.

[MarcusF]

@Shagnasty

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.

Given that threemae is now 26 I’d like to know if they ever married

[Der_Trihs]

@MarcusF

Given that threemae is now 26 I’d like to know if they ever married

Well, looking at threemae’s past threads I see they mentioned breaking up with a “short term girlfriend” in 2008, no mention of a marriage.

[Darth_Panda]

@Milton_De_La_Warre

and (there’s no other way to put it) the chronically ugly.

This phrase makes the resurrection worthwhile.

[suranyi]

@SmackFu

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 know this is zombie thread. But you know what, this describes me! Back in 2002 when this post was written I just turned 40, I had never been married, and it didn’t look like marriage was on the horizon for me at all.

But a few years later I did meet someone, and we got married in 2006, when I was 44 years old.

[Smurfie]

I know, zombie thread.

Curious though how the census numbers are gotten. I know of 2 people in their 40’s that have never been married but claim to be divorced so they won’t seem ‘weird’. If they go by the person’s say-so, the never marrieds may be under-reported.

[EdwardLost]

@yanno35

i woulkd dissagree with the comments on here about marriage.

I’m curious how these zombie threads get resurrected.

Yanno, how did you come across this? Did you have it open on your browser for nine years?

[Gary_Robson]

@EdwardLost

I’m curious how these zombie threads get resurrected.

The main culprit is Google. Now that most of the SDMB is indexed, more people discovering us through old (sometimes very old) threads.

[moderating]
I think we’ll go ahead and leave this one open for the moment. Looks like we just might get some new information…
[/moderating]

[anson2995]

@threemae

I have no intention of ever getting married, but I’m only 17.

What percentage of 17 year olds make this declaration? I’d wager it’s 90%.

I’m not chronically ugly, and have had a couple of long term relationships (3+ months) so far

I guess that seems like “long term” when you are 17…

[panache45]

@anson2995

I guess that seems like “long term” when you are 17…

That’s exactly what I was thinking. At my age an LTR is measured in decades.

[JoelUpchurch]

http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0763219.html

Here is a more up to date table with 2010 data. It becomes easy to understand why so few senior citizens have never been married, since 90% of that demographic were married before they were 30, when you look at the 1970 data. Also, unless I misunderstand that table, there must be a lot of guys that have married, divorced and remarried before they are 44.

Also I recall reading that a lot more woman are choosing not to have children and frankly I don’t understand why anyone gets married unless they plan to raise a family.

http://yourlife.usatoday.com/parenting-family/story/2011/05/White-women-more-likely-to-be-childless-Census-says/46992416/1

It is quite remarkable increase in the the number of men that have never been married. For men 40 to 44 it went from 4.9% in 1970 to 20.4% in 2010.

This suggests to me that the decrease in marriage is simply a reflection of the decrease in the number of people interested in having children, which is a good thing if you are worried about overpopulation.

[Shagnasty]

@JoelUpchurch

[Also I recall reading that a lot more woman are choosing not to have children and frankly I don’t understand why anyone gets married unless they plan to raise a family.

Without turning this into a Great Debate, there are a few legal benefits conferred automatically just by getting married. There is also social and family pressure and that is not something to ignore. However, there are also gigantic risks involved. I see it the same way you do but not everyone does.