Marriage on endangered list in NJ

Some interesting numbers have come out from the American Community Survey about how we live and have families in New Jersey. The 2011-2015 ACS shows that marriage here in the Garden State is dying. We've known for some time that people are pushing off marriage til a later age. But comparing 2006-2010 to 2011-2015, the age for first marriage jumped by another whole year. That's significant in only half a decade. The Census information also shows the number of New Jerseyans who have never been married increased by 5 percent in those five years.

It's hard to argue with the numbers. Marriage is on the decline. Does this mean we're not pairing off? Is love dead? No. In those same five years the number of people living together but refusing to marry jumped by 30,000. Why is this all happening? It's either that people are saddled with too much student loan debt coming out of college and have low job prospects, or they're enjoying an extended period of freedom and adolescence. Or both. The couples living together? They've probably grown cynical seeing their own parents' failed marriages and the devastation wrought by the NJ family court system.

Speaking of families, the numbers also show people are having fewer babies. In a five year period, 14,000 fewer women had babies. What does all this mean? From a governmental standpoint, it means fewer future taxpayers. People who have long thought social security won't be around by the time they retire have just been handed further justification. From a societal standpoint, the way we define families has been evolving more than ever. People today think nothing of having children first then maybe marrying later. That's if they're having children at all. News came out just yesterday that the cost of raising one child from birth to age 17 is now $233,610. Even more expensive in a place like New Jersey.

So is marriage doomed? People have grown up hearing of how their grandparents married straight out of high school and endured bad marriages and lived unhappy lives. They've grown up seeing how their parents went through painful divorces leaving them financially shattered. It's almost like society in America is searching for a better way, even if to some of us it appears selfish or flighty. Maybe they're right to be stepping away from marriage or at least delaying it. How many studies have we read about new research indicating the human brain isn't fully mature until in the later 20's? Is it so wrong that people are waiting til 30 or beyond to marry?