by
Carl Hampton
11/07/2006
A recent survey has shown that
traditional marriage is not the preferred
living arrangement in the U.S.
That's right, read it again. Better yet, let
me rephrase it. The so called, traditional
family household, is beginning to diminish
in numbers.
Should we really be shocked by these
findings? I did a small survey of my own, I
asked twenty people mostly friends over the
course of two weeks how many of their family
or friends were married or just living
together. Guess what, the numbers came out
to half and half and they seem to have been
that way for a long time.
In 2005, the American Community Survey
conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau (USCB)
sifted through all possible records. That
means the U.S.C.B. searched through records
regarding family to national politics. The
results were that 50.2 percent of American
households were not married. Out of the 55.8
millions households, 14 million were ran by
single mothers, 5 million were ran by single
fathers, and 36.7 million were “non family
households” - which were heterosexual or
gay couples that were cohabiting.
Within those statistics 30 million unmarried
women and men were living alone. Those that
were unmarried tend to live in larger
metropolitan cities like Los Angeles and New
York. As for those married households, they
only made up 55.2 million households, and
they lived in the Midwest and the West. That
is a drastic drop from 2000 survey when the
married population was up to 105.5 million
households.
The picture becomes a little bit more
questionable once we involve politics. The
Bush administration has for the past few
years pushed towards a better understanding
of family unity and family values. President
Bush and his administration has even created
special tax breaks, legislation, and church
sponsored campaigns to instill an
understanding of family but it seems to have
had little or no effect.
Have an opinion or a question you would like
me to answer, then write me!
http://www.CarlHampton.com
