Millennials are always being targeted for ruining something. Tipping at restaurants, retirement, even mayonnaise. But now, Americans under age 45 have found something to be proud of to add to their kill list: divorce.
New studies are showing signs of young couples taking a different approach to relationships than their ancestors, who married young and divorced shortly after. Millennials and Generation X are being a lot more picky about who they marry, and are proving so by waiting until they nail down a solid education and a career before settling down.
As a result, the U.S. divorce rate dropped 18 percent from 2008 to 2016 alone, according to a study by University of Maryland sociology professor Philip Cohen.
Susan Brown, a sociology professor at Bowling Green State University, called this change “particularly striking,” and told The Chicago Tribune that young married couples give off characteristics that signal a “sustained decline” of the divorce rate in the upcoming years.
Cohen explained to The Tribune it’s because the married population is getting older: “Marriage is more and more an achievement of status, rather than something that people do regardless of how they’re doing.”
While matrimonial lawyers may have to suffer through this decline, millennials can be at peace, knowing that for once, no one can say they’re screwing something else up.
