Love Culture

Today’s love culture is a mixed bag of challenges. We need to let go of the drag down crowd – statistics. However stats seem to show us how wer are passing along our tainted values to the next generation.

Here I’d like to share some of those statistics that support my statement.

There are 99.6 million unmarried people over age 18 = 44% of the adult population. U.S. Census Bureau. "America's Families and Living Arrangements: 2010"

30.9% of Blacks are married, compared to 69.1% unmarried, while 7.5% of the married population is Black, compared to 19.8% of the unmarried population. - U.S. Census Bureau. American Community Survey: 2005-2007. 

Between 60 – 36 percent of marriages between the ages of 18 and 25 end in divorce. " National Center for Health Statistics

23.0% of the unmarried population aged 18 and older are people of color and 77.0% are white. - U.S. Census Bureau's Current Population Survey (CPS), 2007.

As of 2000, the most common household type in the U.S. is a person living alone. The number of cohabiting unmarried partners increased by 88% between 1990 and 2007. - Hobbs, Frank. 2005. “Examining American Household Composition: 1990 and 2000.” U.S. Census Bureau.

39.7% of all births are to unmarried women. - National Center for Health Statistics. 2007.

Black children are significantly less likely than other children to be living with two married parents. In 2006, 35 percent of black children were living with two parents, compared with 84 percent of Asian children, 76 percent of non-Hispanic white children, and 66 percent of Hispanic children. – Child Trends DataBank, 2007.

Children of divorce have a higher risk of divorce when they marry, and an even higher risk if the person they marry comes from a divorced home. One study found that when the wife alone had experienced a parental divorce, her odds of divorce increased to 59 percent. When both spouses experienced parental divorce, the odds of divorce nearly tripled to 189 percent. " Journal of Marriage and the Family

In 2006, the percentage of American households headed by unmarried parents was nearly double the percentage in 1970. - U.S. Census Bureau. “America’s Families and Living Arrangements: 2007.”

55% of Americans approve of men and women living together without being married. - Gallup. 2007.

57% of Americans consider an unmarried couple who have lived together for five years just as committed in their relationship as a married couple who have lived together for the same time. -Gallup. 2008.

The likelihood that a woman will eventually marry is significantly lower for those who first had a child out of wedlock. By age 35, only 70 percent of all unwed mothers are married in contrast to 88 percent of women who have not had a child out of wedlock. " "Finding a Mate? The Marital and Cohabitation Histories of Unwed Mothers," Lawrence L. Wu and Barbara Wolfe