By Scott Williams
The National Center for Health Statistics last week documented a dramatic rise in children born to unmarried mothers—and it attributed much of the increase to women in the 20s and 30s choosing to have children outside of marriage. "It's been a huge increase—a dramatic increase," said one center official. "It's quite striking."
The rise in unwed pregnancies is not just happening in the United States, but throughout most highly developed countries. In fact, compared with 13 other European nations and Japan, the U.S. out-of-wedlock marriage rate is somewhere in the middle of the pack.
Some countries have been on the rise for some time, others just recently. In Japan, the incidence of non-marital births is still low. In Scandinavian countries, it generally makes up half of all births, if not more. Here's the data for each country from 1980, and from the most recent surveys:
| Country | 1980 | Current |
| Japan | 1% | 2% |
| Italy | 4% |
21% |
| Spain | 4% | 28% |
| Canada | 13% | 30% |
| Germany | 12% | 30% |
| Ireland | 5% | 33% |
| Netherlands | 4% | 40% |
| United States | 18% | 40% |
| United Kingdom | 12% | 44% |
| Denmark | 33% | 46% |
| France | 11% | 50% |
| Norway | 15% | 54% |
| Sweden | 40% | 55% |
| Iceland | 40% | 66% |
If Iceland's non-marital birthrate seems unthinkably high, consider that the rate for 20-24 year-olds in the U.S. is a near-identical 60 percent rate. Nearly a third of births to 25-29 year-olds in the U.S. are also outside of marriage.
Social scientists are scrambling to explain the consistent, widespread surge in births outside marriage. Most focus on three primary factors: increased sexual activity outside marriage; the relaxing of social disapproval of out-of-wedlock childbearing; and the number of women delaying or forgoing marriage. In fact, the most recent Census Bureau data indicates that 40 percent women giving birth outside marriage are in cohabiting relationships.
Although we demographers may have a handle on the "what", few have effectively explained the "why" of women choosing to have children outside marriage. Has their view of marriage become jaded and cohabitation become the new marriage? Is pregnancy a woman's attempt to draw her man from a sexual relationship into a more committed marriage-type arrangement? Is motherhood a consolation prize leftover from childhood dreams of marrying Prince Charming and raising a family together?
No developed society can last for long when it fails to offer security and safety for its women and children, and direction and accountability for its men and adolescents. By distancing sex from procreation and childbearing from marriage, we effectively fragment our society into a collection of individuals who see love, sex, marriage and children as commodities that exist solely for their own happiness. In the meantime, we're bringing children into a world of instability and egocentrism that perpetuates the cycle exponentially.
Data continue to show that a child does best when raised in a stable, loving home with a mother and father each contributing uniquely to that child's development and happiness. While it's possible for a young mother to raise the child alone, it still puts the child at a disadvantage. Often unmarried mothers have much less time and money—two important elements for raising a child—than their married counterparts. And research is also beginning to show that a father plays an integral part in the development of a child.
And while it's possible for a cohabiting couple to raise children, data continue to show that those relationships fail at a much higher rate than traditional marriages. So, again, children of cohabiting couples often end up spending part of their developmental years without the optimal benefit of both parents.
So why is cohabitation seeing such a sharp rise in this country and so many others? Part of it is many couples settle for convenience over the more difficult but stable option. That often shows in the arguments they use against getting married. We'll look at some of those arguments in a followup post soon.
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