Recession To Blame For Drop In Homeownership As Well As Marriage Rates
The recession seems to be socking Americans in the heart as well as the wallet: Marriages have hit an all-time low while pleas for food stamps have reached a record high and the gap between rich and poor has grown to its widest ever.
The economic "indicators say we're in recovery, but the impact on families and
children will linger on for years," he said. For example, in America, marriages fell to a record low in 2009, with just 52 percent of adults 18 and older saying they were joined in wedlock, compared with 57 percent in 2000.
The recession seems to be socking Americans in the heart as well as the wallet: Marriages have hit an all-time low while pleas for food stamps have reached a record high and the gap between rich and poor has grown to its widest ever.
The economic "indicators say we're in recovery, but the impact on families and
children will linger on for years," he said. For example, in America, marriages fell to a record low in 2009, with just 52 percent of adults 18 and older saying they were joined in wedlock, compared with 57 percent in 2000.
Marriages have been declining for years because of rising divorce rates, more unmarried couples living together and increased job prospects for women. But sociologists say younger people are also now increasingly choosing to delay marriage as they struggle to find work and resist making long-term commitments.
Besides marriage, homeownership declined for the third year in a row, to 65.9 percent, after hitting a peakof 67.3 percent in 2006. Residents in crowded housing held steady at 1 percent, the highest since 2004, a sign that people continued to double up to save money.
Read the complete article on these and other effects of the recession here: http://bit.ly/bL8FaE
