Share of 40-year-old Americans who have never been married hits record high

The share of 40-year-old Americans who have never been married reached a record high in 2021, according to the Pew Research Center.

Twenty-five percent of 40-year-olds remained unmarried in 2021, up from 20 percent just over a decade earlier in 2010, Pew’s analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data found.

The share of unmarried 40-year-olds has steadily been increasing since 1980, when just 6 percent of the age group had never been married.

Men were slightly more likely than women to remain unmarried into their 40s in 2021, with 28 percent of men and 22 percent of women falling into this category, the Pew analysis found. 

The portion of unmarried 40-year-olds also varied across racial and ethnic lines. A larger share of Black 40-year-olds had never been married compared to their white, Hispanic or Asian counterparts.

While 46 percent of Black Americans were unmarried at that age, 27 percent of Hispanic Americans, 20 percent of white Americans and 17 percent of Asian Americans were in the same position.

The portion of 40-year-old Americans who have never been married also decreased with as education level rose. Thirty-three percent of 40-year-olds with a high school education or less remained unmarried, compared to 26 percent of those with some college education and 18 percent of those with a bachelor’s degree or greater.

The Pew analysis noted that many unmarried 40-year-olds in previous decades ultimately married later in life. About a quarter of this age group who had never been married in 2001 were married by 60 years old.