The race towards the 2012 presidential election is in full swing, with candidates doing their best to avoid the issues and viciously attack each other instead. It’s cool, we’re America. It’s how we do things. Over here at the OBC offices, we feel like we’re in a perpetual race against the pro-marriage types, and it looks like we’ve almost pulled ahead! According to the Washington Post, only 51% of adults 18 and over are married, a steep decline from the 57% of adults that were wed in 2000.

The number ranges throughout the country, of course, but interestingly, in Washington DC (where the population of young adults has grown substantially in recent years), only one in four adults are married! Pew Research center claims that this “a byproduct of a steady increase in the median age when people first marry, now at an all-time high of older than 26 for women and almost 29 for men.” This idea of waiting for marriage until later years, after enjoying young adulthood as a single, adventurous, and open-minded human is our modus operandi, so you can bet that this came as welcome news to the OBC crew.

The Post notes that back in the 1950s, over 70% of adults were married, when the median age of marriage for women was 20 YEARS OLD. Clearly, as marriage becomes less culturally mandatory, young adults are following their instincts and are enjoying singlehood for their best years before settling down. That right there is music to our ears.