NEW INTERACTIVE MAP REVEALS WHERE YOUNG AMERICANS ARE ACTUALLY GETTING MARRIED
First-of-its-kind data tool shows marriage rates by county for adults 22-39, with striking regional gaps
If you have a marriage mindset, look to Middle America or the South, where young men and women are marrying at higher rates.”
CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA, UNITED STATES, August 20, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- In Provo, Utah, 13.2% of never-before-married young adults tied the knot last year. In Newark, New Jersey, the number was only 2.7%. Same country, same demographic, but a huge gap. — Brad Wilcox
A young adult's odds of finding a spouse in America depends heavily on where they live, and until now, no one had mapped it.
Today the Institute for Family Studies released The Marriage Map, the most comprehensive interactive tool showing marriage rates for young Americans ages 22 to 39, county by county, across the United States.
Users can browse the map here: GoGetMarried.org. The detailed accompanying report, Mapping Marriage in America: Where Young Adults Get Married Most is authored by Brad Wilcox, Wendy Wang, and Kenneth Burchfiel.
The map lets users see where young adults are actually getting married, with the ability to filter by age group, and layer in the factors that best predict marriage rates: the ratio of single employed men to single women, income, education, religious affiliation, and voting patterns.
The Marriage Map challenges conventional wisdom in several ways.
The regions with the highest marriage rates for adults 22-29 are not on the coasts but instead in the interior, places like Utah, Kansas, Nebraska, Tennessee, and Kentucky, and a striking band running from Panama City, Florida to Fort Wayne, Indiana.
For adults in their thirties, the pattern mostly reverses with high marriage rates in large cities like Los Angeles, New York, and Chicago.
Other findings from the underlying report:
- The ratio of single, full-time-employed men to single women is one of the strongest predictors of whether young women in a given region get married.
- Religious affiliation as a whole surprisingly does not show a strong correlation with marriage rates for young adults.
- The best predictor of a region's marriage rate for young women is simply how many other young women there are already married.
“Most young adults are chasing career opportunities in their 20s, which pulls them toward big cities—but if you have a marriage mindset, look to Middle America or the South, where young men and women are marrying at higher rates,” said report co-author Dr. Brad Wilcox, Director of the Get Married Initiative at the Institute for Family Studies and a sociologist at the University of Virginia.
“In simple terms: Nashville, not New York; Fort Wayne, not L.A.”
The Marriage Map is based on 2020-2024 American Community Survey data plus county-level data from the 2020 US Religion Census and the MIT Election Lab.
About the Institute for Family Studies
IFS is a non-partisan research organization dedicated to strengthening marriage and family life through evidence-based research and public education.
The Get Married Initiative Directed by Brad Wilcox provides research and resources for young adults thinking seriously about marriage and family formation.
James Lynch
Institute for Family Studies
+1 917-748-8604
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