Estimated read time: 1-2 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
SALT LAKE CITY -- An increasing number of couples nationwide are not committing to marriage because of the economy.
"Our marriage rate is also down somewhat because of the recession," said BYU Family Life professor Dr. Alan Hawkins.
Instead researchers are finding couples are living together until they feel they can afford to get married.
"We place a pretty high threshold on the institute of marriage," said Hawkins. "A sense of stability, paid off our debts, even have a house we own together."
Experts say some couples find it makes more economic sense to live together first.
"Often these couples are cohabiting anyway and are planning on getting married," said Hawkins. "But with the recession, they're going to delay that even more."
As couples delay coming together, they're also waiting to get a divorce.
"There are people who would like to get a divorce but don't do so because of the cost involved to them," explained Hawkins.
He said some might use this hiatus from divorce to work things out in their marriage but many will not. In fact, Hawkins said, we'll probably see a small spike in the divorce rates once the recession ends.
"You'll see a pent up demand for divorce as we come out of the recession," he predicted.
Utah government records report both Utah's marriage and divorce rates rank at least two points above the national average.
E-mail: niyamba@ksl.com
