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Cohen notes increasing 'family diversity'

MarketWatch article draws on Pew report

Writing in MarketWatch, Quentin Fottrel reports on "dramatic changes" in the family structure over the past 50 years. "About one-quarter of parents living with a child in America in 2018 are unmarried, up from 7% five decades ago, according to a new Pew Research Center analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data. This trend to co-parent without getting married has also reduced the rate of single mothers, who accounted for 53% of unmarried parents last year versus 88% five decades ago, the study found. Today, 35% of all unmarried parents are living with a partner," he wrote.

Faculty Associate Philip Cohen provided context: "You could look at this as a decline of traditional marriage, but I think it’s better described as an increase in family diversity,” he said. People are marrying later, cohabiting instead of marrying, becoming single parents, or forming blended families. “There’s been an explosion of family diversity in the last half century.”

See the article on MarketWatch

See the Pew Research Center Report