Decline in Marriage Associated with the COVID-19 Pandemic in the United States.

ABSTRACT: In the social upheaval arising from the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, we do not yet know how union formation, particularly marriage, has been affected. Using administration records-marriage certificates and applications-gathered from settings representing a variety of COVID-19 experiences in the United States, the authors compare counts of recorded marriages in 2020 against those from the same period in 2019. There is a dramatic decrease in year-to-date cumulative marriages in 2020 compared with 2019 in each case. Similar patterns are observed for the Seattle metropolitan area when analyzing the cumulative number of marriage applications, a leading indicator of marriages in the near future. Year-to-date declines in marriage are unlikely to be due solely to closure of govern

SUBMITTER: Wagner BG 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7780066 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jan-Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature