Fewer Americans say marriage is important for parents: poll

The percentage of Americans who believe it is “very important” for a couple to be married if they have a child has declined in recent years, according to a new Gallup poll. 

The poll, released Monday, found that 29 percent of Americans say that it is “very important” for couples with children together to legally marry. Another 31 percent said that it is “somewhat important.”

These findings represent a drop from previous surveys on couples with children. Gallup found in 2006 that 49 percent believed that it was “very important” for couples with children together to marry, while 38 percent agreed in 2013.

In the survey released Monday, 18 percent say it is “not too” important for couples with children together to legally marry, and 22 percent say it is “not at all” important.

In 2006, 23 percent of survey respondents said it was not too important or not at all important for couples with children to marry, increasing to 35 percent by 2013.

Frequent church attendees, political conservatives and Americans over the age of 55 are the groups that were most likely to believe that it is important for couples with children to marry.

Gallup noted that 66 percent of respondents now believe it is “morally acceptable” for a couple that is not married to have a child, an increase from 53 percent who agreed with that sentiment in 2001.

The Monday poll also found that fewer Americans believe that it is important for couples who want to spend their lives together to marry. Thirty-eight percent said that it is “very important” in the 2020 survey, down 16 points from 54 percent in 2006. 

The survey, part of Gallup’s yearly Values and Beliefs poll, was conducted May 1-13. It was conducted with 1,028 adults in the U.S., and it has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.