The Pew Research Center recently reported that fewer people in the U.S. are getting married.

Currently, just 51% of all American adults are married. Pew predicts that if current trends persist, this figure will shortly fall to below half. Compare this with 1960 when 72% of all adults were married.

Divorce is seen as a factor in the diminished marriage rates, but divorce rates have leveled off over the past 20 years.

A possible reason is that young people now wait longer to marry. Only 20% of adults 18 to 29 are now married, compared with 59% in 1960. And since 1960 the age of marriage has increased for both sexes by about six years.