For richerMarriage in the West
   In wealthy countries, marriage is no longer a rite of passage but a
   the Students Exploring Marriage Trust, a charity that tries to promote
   years older. One-third of brides under 20 were bounced into marriage,
   These days the marriage rate in England and Wales is just 21 per 1,000
   single women in any one year. The median age at first marriage has
   marriage is almost the norm. Fully 48% of English and Welsh babies were
   Marriage is no longer thought essential, even for raising children.
   Even so, Britons seem to idealise marriage more than ever. A once
   attain wedlock—call them the uxariat—marriage is becoming more
   Britons’ attitudes to sex and marriage since the early 1980s. In almost
   young ones, now take a more critical view of affairs. Marriage seems
   even sharper. The Marriage Foundation, a charity, calculates that 87%
   poor do not. Rather, marriage is favoured by well-off people and some
   Somalia, which have strong marriage cultures. The part of Britain with
   the lowest proportion of births outside marriage, at 20%, is Harrow, a
   marriage first, then children. They are less clear about why they
   As marriage becomes the preserve of such careful people, unions are
   marriage and 25% by the tenth. Couples who married a decade later are
   marriage. In America education and marriage go hand-in-hand, to the
   extent that marriage rates are now higher among women with PhDs than
   These marriages of social and educational equals seem to be satisfying,
   For those who achieve it, marriage increasingly looks like a triumph.
   There is, however, a cost to this kind of marriage. If you insist on a
   their marriage targets. Only 83% of Hispanics and 68% of blacks ended
   she says, the least fortunate cling most tightly to a romantic marriage
   marriage, largely because the men they might marry are not up to much.
   miserable marriage after he gets his 18-year-old girlfriend pregnant.
   and the baby, and she has better options outside marriage than she did
   marriage have such a dismal record. America’s federal government has
   Conservatives point out that none of the barriers to marriage in
     * The state of marriage as an institution
     * Marriage in India is becoming less traditional
     * Consanguineous marriages are declining
     * Marriage in the West
     * A distorted sex ratio is playing havoc with marriage in China