It’s often said that marriage is no longer a respected institution these days, with people seemingly getting divorced more regularly and an increasing number of people opting not to get married at all, or much later in life than used to be standard.
However new research has revealed that those common assumptions might actually be false, as the findings suggest that Millennials are actually better at staying married than Baby Boomers.
The study, carried out by the University of Maryland in the US, found that the overall divorce rate had declined by 18 per cent between 2008 and 2016, reports Slate, meaning that marriage today is apparently more successful than in the past.
Just over 10 percent of people between the ages of 18 and 34 are divorced, compared to more than a quarter of people over the age of 44 are divorced, which has increased by 10 per cent since 1980.
Read more: There’s a Baby Boomer divorce epidemic. Here’s why.
Sociology professor Phillip Cohen, who conducted the research, reckons the shift can be mainly attributed to millennials who are going about matrimonial life differently to their predecessors, particularly Baby Boomers who experienced a surge in failed marriages in recent years.
However Cohen explained that the decline in divorces is most likely linked to “the increasingly selective nature of marriage”, saying that the couples “who persist through cohabitation and enter marital unions” have greater stability.
He also predicts that marriage will only continue to become more of a status symbol in years to come, in stark contrast to previous generations where it was commonly seen as a societal expectation.
The report reads: “Marriage is rarer, and more stable, than it was in the past, representing an increasingly central component of the structure of social inequality.”
Read more: Female boomers struggling with money after divorce.
Last year, a study by the Pew Research Centre in America showed that divorce rates in over-65s had tripled since the 1990s, as more Aussie Baby Boomers than ever ditch their partners and embrace the single life, with divorce rates in over-60s rising across the country.
It is believed the trend is a result of people living longer, being healthier and more active than previous generations and not wanting to waste the time they have left.
Factors such as retirees setting off to travel the world, maintaining busy social lives with family and friends and struggling once adult children had flown the nest are all thought to have played a part in the increasing divorce figures.
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