High school girls are less likely than boys to marry in the future for the first time, the Pew Research Center reported Friday. File Photo by Ym Yik/EPA
Nov. 14 (UPI) — Girls who are high school seniors for the first time are less likely to marry than boys of the same age, according to the Pew Research Center.
The Pew Research Center partnered with the University of Michigan to poll high school seniors in 2023 and on Friday announced that two-thirds said they likely will get married.
Boys, though, were more likely to get married than girls, with 74% of boys saying so versus 61% of girls.
The change represents the first time that more boys than girls looked favorably upon marriage in the future, according to Pew.
In 1993, 81% of girls polled said they wanted to marry in the future, versus 76% of boys affirming so.
A majority of high school seniors polled said they likely will marry and raise children at some time, but the percentages of those saying so declined significantly over three decades.
That percentage is down from 80% in 1993, but the percentages of those who have no idea or do not intend to ever marry have risen.
Among respondents, 24% said they don’t know if they will get married, which is up from 16% 30 years earlier.
Another 9% said they won’t get married, which nearly doubled from 5% three decades ago.
Among those who say they likely will get married, most said they either are very likely, 48%, or fairly likely, 25%, to want to have children when married.
That’s a total of 73% versus 82% in 1993, when 64% said they very likely would want to have children and 18% said they were fairly likely to do so when married.
Of those intending to marry, more than half, 51%, said they very likely would stay married to the same person, and another 30% said they are fairly likely to do so, for a total of 80%.
Those numbers are down from 64% and 18%, respectively, and a cumulative total of 82% in 1993.