There is no single measured cause for the national delay. In a 2019 Pew survey, some cohabiting adults who wanted to marry cited financial readiness. Census estimates show that the median age at first marriage rose by 7.3 years for both men and women from 1975 to 2025.
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How much later is first marriage?
The Census Bureau estimates that the median age at first marriage rose from 23.5 to 30.8 for men and from 21.1 to 28.4 for women between 1975 and 2025. Each difference is 7.3 years, by our arithmetic on the published ages. The median is estimated from marital-status patterns; it is not an average of the ages on that year’s wedding records. The age series tells us how timing changed, but it does not ask anyone why they waited.
A median is the middle point of an estimated age pattern. It does not mean most first weddings took place at exactly 30.8 or 28.4. Some people married sooner, some married later, and some had not married. The Census measure concerns first marriage, so a person marrying for the second time is outside that timing question. When a headline says 'the average age of marriage,' check whether the underlying source actually gives this first-marriage median.
The national change is visible for both men and women in this series. We can describe the direction and size of that shift without choosing a cause. A national median combines people with different education, incomes, regions, and relationship histories. It can move even when a particular community or couple follows a different schedule. The series gives a broad time marker, not an expected age for any one person. It also answers a timing question rather than how many people will eventually marry. A later first-marriage median could coexist with different lifetime marriage patterns. To discuss whether marriage itself became more or less common, use a measure of marital status or marriage history, with its own age range and year.
Financial readiness is a reason some couples give
Pew asked cohabiting adults in 2019 why they had not become engaged or married to their current partner. Among those who were not engaged but wanted to marry someday, 29% said their partner’s financial readiness was a major reason, and 27% said the same about their own. Respondents could give more than one reason. These answers explain what some people in this specific group reported; they cannot assign a share of the 50-year national age increase to money.
The two financial answers can overlap. A respondent could worry about both partners' finances, so adding 29% and 27% would count some people twice. Nor does a financial concern name a single event. It might refer to income, debt, housing, or something else; this published item does not apportion those details. We can say that financial readiness was a major stated reason for a substantial minority in the surveyed group. We cannot say how much of the national age shift money produced.
The group's selection matters. These respondents wanted to marry someday, lived with a partner, and were not engaged. If people who do not want marriage are added to the denominator, the reason question changes. The results do not explain why people who have never cohabited or who do not expect to marry are outside marriage. They describe a current decision in a particular relationship.
Reasons some couples gave for waiting
The table may be wider than the screen. Focus it and use the arrow keys to reach every column.
| Reason named | Share calling it major | Whose readiness |
|---|---|---|
| Financial readiness | 29% | Partner's |
| Financial readiness | 27% | Own |
| Ready for this commitment | 26% | Partner's |
| Ready for this commitment | 14% | Own |
Who got counted: Cohabiting adults who were not engaged but said they wanted to marry someday. These are not percentages of all adults.
How to read it: People could name several reasons. The survey records their answers about one current relationship; it does not measure what caused the national change in first-marriage age.
Download the table (CSV) ↓Partnership can begin before marriage
In Pew’s separate analysis of adults ages 18 to 44, 59% had lived with an unmarried opposite-sex partner at some point, while 50% had ever married. Those are lifetime experiences and can overlap: one person may do both. In the 2019 survey, 44% of cohabiters who were not engaged when they moved in with their partner said they had viewed living together as a step toward marriage. That helps explain how a couple can form a household before marrying, without proving cohabitation caused the national age trend.
The 59% is a history measure; it does not mean all of those adults were cohabiting when surveyed. The 50% similarly means ever married, rather than married on the survey day. If one person first lives with an unmarried partner and later marries, that person fits both percentages. The two results therefore cannot be subtracted to find a share of people who chose cohabitation instead of marriage. The choices can occur in sequence.
The 44% answer is also retrospective: respondents described how they viewed moving in at that time. It does not say they subsequently married. Others may have shared a home without seeing marriage as the next step. The household decision and the legal marriage decision can be separate, even within one continuing partnership. The age at first marriage cannot tell us when that partnership began.
What remains unknown
Pew asked a specific group about their current relationship in 2019; Census measured first-marriage timing across the population in 1975 and 2025. The two sources do not follow the same people. Education, work, housing, family plans, and changing views of marriage may matter, but these figures cannot rank their national effects. If you are comparing another explanation, look for a study that measures that factor and the timing of first marriage in the same population.
Pew also asked the cohabiting group about readiness for the commitment of marriage. Among people who wanted to marry someday but were not engaged, 26% said their partner's readiness for commitment was a major reason they had not married or become engaged; 14% said that about their own readiness. These are separate questions from financial readiness. A person could select several reasons, so the four percentages in the table are not four mutually exclusive kinds of couple.
The partner answers are respondents' perceptions of their current relationship. Pew did not use a matched interview with both partners for this question. Thus 'my partner is not ready' is not a statement from that partner in the dataset. The answer still tells us something useful about what a respondent believed was holding up a decision. It cannot resolve a disagreement between two people or reveal a partner's private plans.
For a couple discussing timing, the four categories suggest a more precise conversation than an argument over the national median. Ask separately about your own finances, your partner's finances, and each person's readiness as that person describes it. Then ask what would change the decision. The survey cannot answer for your relationship, but it shows why a single explanation such as 'everyone is waiting for money' is too broad. Census tells us later first marriage became more common nationally; it does not set a deadline for a couple.
