Once again the Pew research Center has come out with something that holds a few eye opening statistics. Four out of every ten newlyweds have been married before-that’s 40% folks. Many are divorced, some are widowed and some have been married multiple times before. This report sheds light on how marriage patterns have been shifting for decades—for instance, only 70% of adults today have been married compared with 85% in 1960. That’s a 15% drop over 50 years. The divorce rate is also much higher and this has contributed to the remarriage increase—apparently baby boomers have a higher divorce rate than any other generation before them.
According to Pew, it’s not that folks are necessarily flocking to the altar to remarry, it’s that there is a much larger pool of once married singles and from this group, we are seeing an uptick in remarriages. What is also interesting is that men are more likely and more motivated to remarry than women are. Apparently men enjoyed having a woman care for them in their first marriage and women who are divorced or widowed aren’t necessarily eager to take on another role as caregiver to a new man. What is not entirely surprising is that remarried men are likely to marry a woman who is at least 10 years younger, while remarried women end up with partners who are older or closer to their own age. 42 million adults remarried in 2013, which is 22 million more than in 1980. In addition 8% of these folks had been married three times or more. What’s also interesting is that older Americans are more likely to be in this remarriage group than younger adults. Those who are 25-34 have a 43% remarriage rate, while those who are older have a 50% rate of remarriage.
If you are an older, single adult who wishes to remarry, this is good news—especially if you are a man. If you are in the younger category with the same marital aspirations, you might be experiencing difficulty either finding potential partners for first time marriage or someone who wants to have a second or third try at getting it right. However, no one has to settle for becoming a statistic. How much success you have in finding and creating a healthy relationship continues to be related to your relationship readiness, how well you handle your own single life, your general attitude and what it tells others about you—and how much effort you are willing to put into it. Just remember that disappointment will come with dating and hopefully you will learn from it and develop the resources and tools that maximize your efforts and increases your chances of finding that right someone if this is what you desire.
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