Only 18% Of American Households Are Families With Married Parents

Children need a mother and a father — a context that more American youth than ever are lacking.

There are currently just 23.1 million American homes with those ‘nuclear families,’ which is the fewest since 1959. The reasons given for the drop include the pandemic delaying marriage and a continued decline in birth rate.

The average age of a woman at her first marriage is now 28.6 years. In the 1950s and 60s, women typically married at 20.4 years old. The average age for men to marry for the first time in 2021 was 30.4 years old. America’s fertility rate dropped to 55.4 births per 1,000 in the second quarter of 2021, down from 58.5 in the same period of 2019.

Americans are also living alone at a higher rate than they used to. The percentage of adults in the US living with a spouse was 50 percent, down from 52 percent 10 years ago. Over 37 million adults lived alone in early 2021, up from 33 million in 2011. As far back as 1960, 87 percent of adults lived with a spouse.

Analysts and commentators have pointed toward declining rates of religiosity, higher living expenses, the permutation of LGBTQ ideology, and even climate alarmism to explain the erosion of the American family. Indeed, the United States economy is already feeling pressure from the nation’s demographic crisis — for example, through the looming insolvency of Social Security and other programs.

Noticing these dangers, Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk commented at a recent summit that civilization will “crumble” unless people begin having more children.

“I think one of the biggest risks to civilization is the low birthrate and the rapidly declining birthrate,” Musk explained.

“And yet, so many people, including smart people, think that there are too many people in the world and think that the population is growing out of control,” Musk continued. “It’s completely the opposite. Please look at the numbers — if people don’t have more children, civilization is going to crumble, mark my words.”

Meanwhile, other nations are seeking to prevent societal barrenness.

China — which implemented strict population control measures following its communist revolution — is now seeking to undo its “one-child policy.” Today, the nation’s central government is permitting couples to have up to three children.

China’s authorities are also introducing new regulations meant to decrease the cost of living for couples with children.

For instance, the Chinese Communist Party banned for-profit tutoring in July, effectively kneecapping a $120 billion industry overnight. Parents previously solicited tutoring services throughout a child’s primary and secondary education to prepare them for the National College Entrance Examination, which determines whether a Chinese student is eligible for undergraduate education.

Days later, China implementedregulations on the nation’s real estate sector to ensure that families can afford homes — a move that accorded with President Xi Jinping’s adage that “housing is for living in and not for speculation.”