America


Gen Z Abandons Marriage, Threatening Social Fabric


Dating apps, politics, declining faith keeping young men and women apart. A BY LISA SCHIFFREN


mong gen z, the median age for a fi rst marriage is up to 30.2 for men, and 28.6 for women.


And far fewer young adults are tak-


ing the plunge — or seem to want to. Considering that marriage is the cornerstone of our entire social struc- ture, the foundation on which healthy families are built and the entire soci- ety rests, this is troubling. Hell, it’s a disaster.


According to the Pew Research


Center, only 61% of girls who are high school seniors and 74% of boys plan to marry. Why is this such a disaster? After


all, women can support themselves these days. And men and women don’t seem to like each other much. Among other things, there is the


ever-increasing divergence in their politics, with women heading left and men heading right. For one thing, there is the much discussed “loneliness epidemic,” in


22 NEWSMAX | OCTOBER 2026


which people of all ages, but especially young men under 30, report being terribly lonely in their youth, as they move alone through milestones like college, the start of work, and living independently. Marriage exists in signifi cant mea-


sure because most humans prefer not to go through life alone. You may not feel that at 18, but you will at 28. Then there is the fi rst world prob-


lem of low birth rates. As marriage becomes less normative, there will be even fewer babies born. Many young women in Gen Z cur-


rently profess not to want children. According to the Centers for Disease


Control, 39% of women in their 20s do not expect to ever have children. Only 45% desire to give birth. And for those women who decide to


have children without being married, there is the increasingly widely recog- nized fact that children born into func- tioning marriages do much better in life. So, why isn’t Gen Z marrying, and


what can be done about it? A lot of people blame some combi-


nation of digital culture, phones them- selves — with all the retreats from reality that they off er — and the dating apps that you access. Others blame the economy, in which many young men of all classes


“The digital revolution has pushed young women to the leſt and young men to the right. Many young women can’t swallow the fact that a man that they might


otherwise date voted for Trump.” — Brad Wilcox, director of the National Marriage Project


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