This week in class when we talked about the trends going on it really intrigued me.  Marriage is declining.  The average age for women is 26 and for men it is 28.  This leads into the next trend which is fertility rate.  Because people are getting married later in life, they tend to have fewer children.  With the fertility rate being lower this also correlates with the birth rate lowering.  There are half as many children being born.  The people who cohabit are increasing.  In 1960, 430,000 people were in a cohabiting relationship.  In 2008, the numbers showed that 6.1 million people now cohabit. On the other side of that, more people are starting to live alone.  In 2006, 30.5 million American’s were living alone.  This can go back to marriage and the trend of getting married later in life.  The household sizes are shrinking. In 1790 the average household size was 5.8 people, in 1960 it was 3.3, and in 2006 it decreased to 2.57.  Premarital sex and increased tremendously.  Trusting what teenagers say, 48.6% of high school kids have had sex.  This leads into the next trend of unwed births have also escalated. In America, 38.5% of all births are to unwed mothers. Statistics have shown two very different outcomes when women get pregnant before marriage.  In 1950 it was shown that 50% of women will marry the dad, 49% will place the child for adoption, and only 1% will abort.  In 2005 they looked at the same scenarios.  The found that 50% will marry the dad, 1% will place for adoption, and 49% will abort. Now you may be asking yourself, why does this all matter?  Times are changing and people’s attitudes and behaviors are also changing.  I don’t know the answer to that yet, but I am hoping to find that out.