Affluent Americans Still Say ‘I Do.’ More in the Middle Class Don’t.

Middle-class Americans are forsaking marriage amid financial insecurity, effectively making the institution more of a luxury good enjoyed by prosperous Americans.

The middle three-fifths of U.S. earners have experienced the sharpest declines in marriage rates over the past four decades compared with people at the bottom of the income ladder and those at the top, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of census data from 1980 to 2018, the most recent available. These households earned from $25,000 to $125,000 in 2018.

Affluent Americans who marry are more likely to pool six-figure incomes, buy homes and watch their assets grow. Among people ages 25 to 34, the median wealth of married couples is four times that of couples who live together but aren’t married, according to research by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. The divide reflects another facet of the nation’s income gap.

More couples are deciding to live together instead of marrying, and strained finances are a top reason many cite. A survey last year by the nonpartisan Pew Research Center found that among those who live with a partner and wish to get married, more than half said they or their partner weren’t financially ready.