This shift helped keep marriage rates stable even as campus gender balances shifted. But that adjustment that helped college women maintain stable marriage rates has had spillover effects for non-college women. As college women increasingly partnered with these men, the pool of financially stable partners for non-college women shrank. In areas where most non-college men are employed, marriage rates for non-college women are higher, Chambers explained. Marriage trends reflect more than economic trends alone, and it remains unclear whether strong economic conditions would be enough to reverse them.

Source: Daily Sun February 09, 2026 05:13 UTC