The Marriage Crunch?

What are the chances of getting married after you turn 40?

When the Census last crunched the numbers in 1996, a single woman at 40 had a 40.8 percent chance of eventually marrying. Today those odds are probably even higher–and may be only slightly worse than the probability of correctly choosing “heads” or “tails” in a coin toss.

I'm not sure if this is good news or bad news? The article is contrasting this to a 2.5% chance Newsweek reported 20 years ago. On a positive note, these figures seem to lump together women who do want to get married and those who don't. The numbers should be higher for those women who do want to get married.

I wonder what the odds are for men? My guess is that they are somewhat higher, although possibly not by that much.

Read more on this here, here, and here.

This data reinforces advice I've given before: Spend your twenties doing whatever it takes to figure out what you want to do with your life and who you want to spend it with. If you didn't do that in your twenties, start as soon as possible. Don't be afraid of trial and error on either front. That's how you discover.

Richard Florida would also argue choosing a place to live is just as important as finding a spouse.