Amid historic lows, marriage and family offer ‘hope and a future’ to next generation

Marriage and family statistically promise greater wealth and happiness, but the number of people marrying and rearing children has plummeted to historic lows nationwide, according to Center for Christian Virtue’s Family Structure Index.

CCV President Aaron Baer said the increase in inadequate education, poverty, crime and suicide shows the failure of government programs and funding. 

“It’s because we’ve been fundamentally treating the wrong issue, because what’s driving a lot of the issues we see in culture is kids not having a married mom and dad at home,” Baer told The Lion in an interview.  

CCV partnered with the Institute for Family Studies and University of Virginia Professor of Sociology Brad Wilcox to examine the percentage of permanent marriage and family in each state. 

The Family Structure Index measured every U.S. state in three categories: 

• the percentage of married adults ages 25 to 54, whom Wilcox calls “prime-aged adults”; 
• the average fertility rate, or number of births per woman; 
• and the percentage of teenagers ages 15 to 17 who live with their married, biological parents.  

The index compared the state data with the national average in these categories and scored states accordingly. 

Only 53% of “prime-aged adults” nationwide are married, according to a Pew Research study. America’s national fertility rate is 1.6 children per woman, and only 53% of 15-to-17-year-olds nationwide live with their married mom and dad, according to the report.  

Utah ranked first of all 50 states with 68% of “prime-aged adults” married, an average fertility rate of 1.85, and 70.4% of teenagers living in their married, biological parents’ home.  

Following Utah, states Idaho, Nebraska, South Dakota and Wyoming ranked in the top five nationwide. Of all 50 states, South Dakota boasted the highest fertility rate – 2.01 – well above the national average of 1.6, but still below the 2.1 replacement rate.  

One state – Washington – curiously boasted the second-highest percentage of children raised by their biological, married parents (62.3%) but its low scores on marriage rate (58.6%) and fertility rate (1.53) demoted the state to the 22nd rank nationally. 

The lowest-ranking states, in decreasing order, were Massachusetts, Nevada, New York, New Mexico and Rhode Island. 

As 50th in the nation, Rhode Island only sees 50.8% of adults marry, 1.4 children born per woman, and 47.3% of teenagers still living with their married parents.  

Baer said these statistics reflect a “cultural problem” that poorly answers the fundamental question “what is the good life?”   

“You really see the cultural answer to ‘what does the good life look like’ being very me-centric, and that’s the literal, exact opposite of marriage,” Baer said. “Marriage is laying your life down for another person.” 

After gathering the data from the index, CCV and Institute for Family Studies released the Hope and A Future Report – named after Jeremiah 29:11’s passage “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope” – to encourage Americans to strengthen marriage and family. 

The study is hoped to have special resonance in Ohio, since CCV is headquartered in Columbus – and after the state recently allocated $20 million for marriage and father programming in public schools. 

Public schools in Ohio will now teach children the fundamental importance and priority of marriage and family, which many kids no longer see at home. 

“We call it the Hope and a Future Report because the question is: how do we give a hope and a future to the next generation?” Baer said. “And what we see consistently across the board is that marriage and family is the root of a healthy life. 

“On the inverse, the decline of marriage and family is at the root of basically all the challenges we’re facing in America today.”  

Alarmingly, only 61% of senior high school girls say they want to marry – a 22-point drop in 30 years, Pew Research recently reported. In contrast, 74% of senior high school boys say they want to marry, marking the first time men outrank women on the question. 

The marriage delay is largely due to a national trend that prioritizes education and career over marriage and family, Baer said. Nearly three-quarters of Americans (70%) ranked work as extremely important to “live a fulfilling life,” while only one-quarter of Americans said marriage and family brought that fulfillment, according to the report. 

“Marriage used to be seen as the cornerstone of life. Now it’s taught and it’s looked at as the capstone of life,” Baer said. “That’s the lie that this generation has been taught: ‘you need to discover the happiest thing. The best thing for you to thrive is to figure out who you are, and then settle down and get married.’ … 

“And we see statistically, that’s not true. Actually, again, the happiest people in America today are married moms. The second happiest people are married dads.” 

Baer described the “success sequence,” which lists three key factors: 

• graduating from high school; 
• working as a young adult; 
• and having kids after getting married. 

These three factors statistically promise a healthy, wealthy life, with only a 3% chance of being poor and an 86% chance of living in the middle class, Professor Wilcox said. 

“The truth is, the greatest tool to lift children and families from poverty … isn’t a government spending program. It’s called marriage,” the report writes, quoting U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio.  

Marriage and family not only promise greater wealth but also improved business, Baer said. Seven of the top 10 states in the index are also in the top 10 states for doing business, according to the American Legislative Exchange Council economic report.  

“The data shows, for example, married men are far better employees than unmarried men because they have a family to provide for,” Baer said. “They have that extra motivation. That’s important.” 

The report offers five ways for any state to overcome poverty and depression levels by emphasizing marriage and family through data tracking, strengthening marriages, educating students on the success sequence, bridging the gender gap and restricting big technology for kids. 

State agencies can track and report on marriage and family structure to present clear data on their importance, the study says. While most government interference is unnecessary or harmful for families, the state can still encourage marriage by removing barriers that de-incentivize marriage, Baer said, explaining how welfare subsidies offer more financial income to a man and woman cohabiting than to a married couple. 

“There’s a lot of things we wouldn’t want government to do to encourage folks to get married,” Baer said. “However, on the other side of it, where we are concerned, and this is a harder area to deal with, is the welfare state. This is really where you see government doing a lot of damage – basically incentivizing people not to get married.” 

Churches and nonprofits alike should educate citizens on the importance of marriage, the report says. 

Historically, churches encouraged and fostered marriages and families, but today, 85% of churches spend zero dollars on supporting marriage and family according to a 2023 study, Baer explains. 

“This is something the church can actually address, but the church has to get serious about recapturing the imagination around marriage and creating a culture for that to happen,” he said, adding that schools, also, should educate students on the success sequence and help bridge the gender gap between male and female grades and social strengths.  

“It’s no longer normative to be raised in a household with your married mom and dad, so kids aren’t even seeing marriage demonstrated for them,” Baer said. “So, it’s not even in their cultural imagination that this is something to aspire to. It’s not being passed down. What’s normal to them is dad not being home.” 

Additionally, parents and teachers must protect children from the dangers of Big Tech, including social media and video-games, according to the report.  

“We understand social media is bad for our girls,” Wilcox said on a CCV podcast. “Well, guess what? Gaming is really bad for our teenage boys.” 

Baer highlighted Christian education and the church as the two main avenues to support and encourage marriage and family.  

“Christian education is the only chance we’re going to have to demonstrate and pass along to the next generation what a thriving and successful life looks,” he said. 

He mourned the church’s retreat from this topic, saying every church should use its space to create community. 

“We have big, beautiful buildings with places to meet and people to connect with,” he said. “And that used to be something that was very central to the church’s role in the community, and it needs to be again.”