Fewer U.S. young people committing to marriage, relationships: Gallup

Along with a decline of marriages among young Americans, fewer of them appear to be in committed relationships in the past decade, according to Gallup poll released Monday.

The percentage of young American adults aged 18-29 who reported being single and not living with someone has risen dramatically, from 52 percent in 2004 to 64 percent in 2014, found the Gallup poll.

Marriage remains the dominant living arrangement for Americans in their 30s. However, in contrast to the sharp rise in the percentage of 20-somethings leading a single lifestyle, 30- somethings were only slightly more likely to be single in 2014 compared with a decade earlier, it showed.

This is because, while the percentage of 30-somethings who are married has declined about 10 percentage points, the percentage of those living together has increased significantly -- nearly doubling from 7 percent to 13 percent.

Meanwhile, the living arrangements of American adults aged 40 and older are largely unchanged. For the past decade, approximately six in 10 reported being married, between 7 percent and 8 percent reported being single/never married, and between 3 percent and 5 percent reported living together.

The increase in 18- to 29-year-olds identifying as single and never married is seen across a broad range of subgroups, including by race, education, region and political party, according to the poll.

Still, young Americans from Southern states are slightly less likely than their counterparts in other regions to be single, and young whites and Hispanics are less likely to be single than young blacks.

Additionally, fewer young women than young men are single, suggesting many women in their 20s are married to men aged 30 or older. And college graduates are less likely to be single than those with only some or no college education, according to the poll. Endite