Marriage Rates Fall to Lowest Level Since 1967

Marriage rates have fallen to their lowest in two decades, the National Center for Health Statistics said in a report for release today.

In 1988, the last year for which final statistics are available, the number of marriages per 1,000 total population, or the marriage rate, fell to 9.7--the lowest it has been since 1967.

Among unmarried women age 15 to 44, the rate hit its lowest point ever, at 91 per 1,000 in 1988, compared to 147.2 per 1,000 two decades earlier.

A separate NCHS study showed that a third of women age 15 to 44 reported in 1988 that they had cohabited at some point in their lives. The figure was 45% for women 25 to 29.

Divorce rates have flattened slightly in recent years but are still substantially higher than in the past--8.5 per 1,000 married women in 1988 compared to 14 per 1,000 in 1970. For men, the figures were 18.9 per 1,000 in 1988 and 14.2 per 1,000 in 1970.