Economic recession to blame for huge drop in marriage rates among young people

The number of young adults in the United States who have never been married surpassed the number of married people in the same category for the first time in 2009, according to information just released by the Census Bureau. Marriage rates have been in decline for a long time, but 2009's financial recession finally put everyone over the edge. Most twenty-five to thirty-four-year olds choose instead to hang out, date, and wait to tie the knot.

In other words, getting married is too expensive. The expense is less weddings themselves, though those are hardly cheap, and more the expectation that with marriage, comes the need to start acting grown-up - ie. buy a house, have kids, etc. Activities that the twenty-something set -- between all the soul-searching, not-having-insurance, and moving back in with Mom and Dad -- can't afford.  

Whether this is a big deal or not varies, depending on who you ask. There is, however, a pleasant irony in the fact that the same people who are most likely to decry the decline of marriage, are the same ones trying to keep all those wedding-crazy young gays from making things official.