Infographic "Visualizing Development: Marital Status in the United States"

The infographic begins with the following text: "Adults seek committed partners but do not always find them — age, cohort, and culture are always influential. Some choose to avoid marriage, more commonly in northern Europe and less commonly in North Africa than in the United States. As you see, in 2018, U.S. emerging adults were unlikely to marry, middle- aged adults had the highest rates of separation or divorce, and widows often chose to stay alone while widowers often remarried."

Next is a four-panel graphic that shows marital status by age. The graphic is very detailed and has a lot of information, and is summarized here. Each panel shows ages 15 to 85+ in five year increments, and has percentages in 25 point increments. The ranges vary by panel.

• Panel 1 - Married. Rates for both men and women are very low at 15 and 20 years, but increase steadily to nearly 75 percent for men by age 45 and about 70 percent of women by the same age. Rates for women then slowly and steadily decrease to 50 percent by age 80, and drop to 21 percent for the 85+ range. For men the rates stay high until 80 and drop to about 65 percent for age 85+. The graphs for men and women are generally symmetrical. Note: Married includes remarried. Separated and divorced have been combined.
• Panel 2 - Widowed. The rates are approximately zero or very low up until age 55 for both men and women. For men the rates increase to about 20 percent by ages 75 and 80 and jump to about 30 percent by ages 85+. For women the rates are much higher, increasing to about 23 percent in ages 65 and 70, 35 percent for ages 75 and 80, and 74 percent for ages 85+.
• Panel 3 - Divorced or separated. There is a nearly symmetrical graph that starts low at the lower ages, increases steadily to about 38 percent by ages 50 through 65, and then decreases steadily to about 5 to 7 percent by ages 85+. This is mostly identical for men and women.
• Panel 4 - Never married - This graph is almost symmetrical for men and women. The rates are very high at younger ages - nearly 100 percent at age 15, and then decreases steadily until age 45, when the rates drop to about 22-23 percent. The rates continue to drop to nearly zero by ages 85+.

The next section is a horizontal bar graph entitled "Top reasons for getting married, according to U.S. Adults." There are 7 reasons given, with approximate percentages. The data are as follows:

• Love (picture of hearts) - 88 percent
• Making a lifelong commitment (picture of two interlocked rings) - 81 percent
• Companionship (picture of two people standing close) - 76 percen
• Having children (picture of a baby stroller) - 49 percent
• A relationship recognized by a religious ceremony (picture of 3 lit candles) - 30 percent
• Financial stability (picture of a dollar bill) - 28 percent
• Legal rights and benefits (picture of a gavel) - 23 percent

The next section is a pie graph entitled, "Nearly half of new marriages involve remarriages." The chart is divided into three sections.

• First marriage for both spouses (60 percent)
• Remarriage for one spouse (20 percent)
• Remarriage for both spouses (20 percent).

The final section is a brief line graph entitled, "Living arrangements of 25 to 34 year olds." In 1968, 81.5 percent were living with a spouse, and in 2018 that number dropped to 40.3 percent. In 1968, 0.2 percent were living with a partner, and in 2018 that number increased to 14.8 percent.