A clearer view of relationships.
Start with the question. Then choose the population, period and evidence that can answer it.
Which statistic do you need?
| Your question | Use this measure | What it counts |
|---|---|---|
| Who is married, divorced or never married? | Current marital status | People in a stated age group at a point or period in time. |
| How many marriages or divorces were recorded? | Marriage and divorce event rates | Legal events in a defined reporting area and year. |
| How many marriages end in divorce? | Marriage-cohort outcomes | Marriages formed in the same period, followed to a stated anniversary. |
| How common is living together as a couple? | Coupled-household composition | Households, with a specified householder relationship. |
| How many adults have tried online dating? | Dated survey evidence | People responding to an ever-use or recent-use question. |
Measure definitions and original sources are linked from each guide. Read the full definitions.
Compare current marital status across places
The marital-status research covers 60 geographies: the United States, all 50 states and D.C., four counties and four cities. Original Census one-year estimates for 2021–2024 include source margins of error and matching male/female breakdowns. The Data Commons history uses a separately labelled five-year product.
Open a place profile to inspect the population behind a percentage, then compare compatible places. Five mutually exclusive status categories keep married and separated people from being counted twice.
Understand relationship formation and change
First-marriage timing, recent experiences and ongoing marriage duration describe different parts of a relationship’s history. Each guide starts with its own population and reference period.
- Age at first marriage
An indirect population estimate of first-marriage timing, with male and female source categories.
- People reporting marriage in the past year
A resident survey measure with a rolling 12-month lookback, distinct from registered weddings.
- People reporting a recent divorce
A past-year experience that can differ from a person’s current marital status.
- Duration of current marriages
Marriages still present in the survey snapshot, not the eventual length of all marriages.
Read research on intimate partnerships
Legal marital status does not describe every romantic relationship. Cohabitation tables use households, while dating surveys depend on a particular question and sample.
Inspect a finding before you cite it
Check the measure, population, geography and period beside the figure. A reviewed page can describe older survey fieldwork; a five-year estimate is not an annual event count. Downloaded research records preserve their source, period, statistical variable, denominator and release.
For the Data Commons cohort, 300 latest-period status counts and their population denominators match the original Census five-year table exactly. That verification does not make the one-year and five-year products interchangeable or supply uncertainty where the API omitted it.
Sources, coverage and reuse · Calculations and comparison rules · Revisions and corrections