In the USA fewer adults are married. I would dare to suggest the situation would probably be similar here in Australia. Fewer people are getting married, with many choosing to live alone, or to live with a partner but outside of an official marriage situation. According to a Time magazine survey, almost half of these interviewed have lived with or are currently living with a partner without being married. Does this mean marriage has become irrelevant? Apparently not!
Of the total of people involved in the research, 46 percent wanted to get married. Of these 64 percent were already living with a partner, 58 had never married and 22 percent were divorced. It is interesting to see that those who had never married or who are living with someone still want to get married.
Another question asked was why get married. For the majority of people the answer came down to several things. The predominate reason for both married and unmarried people to get married was love. The next most important for both these groups was making a lifelong commitment and the third most important reason was companionship. Then a fair way down the list came having children and much further down the list financial stability.
All this seems to suggest that deep down people still believe in marriage and want to get married and that the main reason for getting married is because they love the other person and want to spend their lives together.
An overwhelming majority also believed that there was only one true love for each person and that they had found theirs. I’m not sure that is always the case. I know people who have been happily married and in love more than once. Interestingly it has often been after the first spouse has died. Maybe if you’ve had a loving happy marriage first time around it is easier second time round, yet I think it would make it harder. What do others think?
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