Marriage rates are the lowest they’ve been in decades—about 47% of U.S. households are headed by a married couple compared with 79% in 1949—and tying the knot is no longer a requirement for economic security, safety, or sexual gratification. Couples who get hitched today desire a new kind of marriage, based on personal fulfillment.
Even so, most Americans marry eventually; 87% of women have wed by age 54. In For Better and Worse: The Complicated Past and Challenging Future of Marriage, histori