Marriage & Divorce

Almost a quarter of U.S. children under 18 live with one parent and no other adults, more than three times the share of children around the world who do so.

As marriage rates have declined, the share of U.S. adults who have ever lived with an unmarried partner has risen.

As more U.S. adults are delaying marriage – or forgoing it altogether – the share who have ever lived with an unmarried partner has been on the rise.

Worldwide, most of the countries that allow gay marriage are in Western Europe. In the Americas, five countries have legalized gay marriage.

More than 18 years after the Netherlands became the world’s first country to allow same-sex marriage, Austria became the latest European nation to legalize the practice.

Moms are more likely than dads to say they are the primary meal preparers, and they spend more time on average than dads on meal preparation.

The share of Americans who favor same sex marriage has grown in recent years, though there are still demographic and partisan divides.

A majority of Americans (61%) favor allowing gays and lesbians to marry legally, while about half as many (31%) oppose same-sex marriage. Republicans and Democrats remain deeply divided over legal marriage for gays and lesbians – though support has increased significantly in both parties over the past 15 years.

The church is one of the few major mainline Protestant denominations in the country that currently does not sanction same-sex marriage.

The landscape of relationships in America has shifted dramatically in recent decades. Read eight facts about love and marriage in the country.