February 14 is upon us, and though the cards, chocolates and teddy bears of contemporary Valentine’s Day may seem a far cry from the 5th century feast of a Roman saint, we still love to celebrate love. Much has changed about how we find and express love since the early middle ages—obviously. In fact, as you’ll see, much has changed in the last two decades. Modern day romance is a fluid beast, and the expectations and demands of a rapidly changing culture have transformed the landscape of love. To examine those shifts, this article draws from a number of Barna studies and demographic data, including many from Barna Trends, and takes a peek at the changing dynamics of marriage and singleness, the trends toward premarital cohabitation, the impact of online dating and the possibilities of finding love at work.

Not Alone: Percentage of Single People Continues to Grow Barna has been collecting demographic data on the American public for decades, providing some fascinating insights into the generational shifts occurring nationwide, particularly when it comes to singleness, marriage and divorce. Overall, the segment of American adults who are currently married—though fluctuating slightly over the last 16 years—remains steady at just over half of all adults (52% in 2000 and 52% in 2016). Those who are currently divorced also remains steady at about one in 10 (10%), from 11 percent in 2000. Because of the reality of re-marriage, the currently divorced rate does not take into account past divorce, which, when accounted for, brings the proportion of American adults who have ever been divorced to one-quarter (25%), a rate that has remained steady since 2000 (when it was 24%). The percentage of single people (never married) however has increased from just over one-quarter (27%) to three in 10 (30%). This uptick is the big story here, and it only gets more pronounced when looking closely at the trends within the different age groups.

For instance, between 2000 and 2016, the relational makeup of those aged between 25 and 39 shifted dramatically. In the 16 years since 2000, the amount of single people in the 25-29 range rose 9 percentage points (from 50% percent to 59%), and the amount of single people in the 30-39 range also rose 10 percentage points (from 24% to 34%). From a different angle, during the same time period, those groups saw similar shifts in the number of those married. In the 16 years since 2000, the amount of people married in the 25-29 range dropped 7 percentage points (from 43% to 36%), and the amount of people married in the 30-39 range dropped 8 percentage points (from 65% to 57%). These are massive shifts, most pronounced among those in their twenties and thirties, toward a broader move to delay marriage among younger Americans. If you were in your late twenties in the year 2000, you were much more likely to be married than if you were that same age today. These figures are staggering considering the relatively short time period in which they occur. The census bureau statistics from 2011 corroborate these broader shifts. Americans are getting married later and later. The average age of first marriage in the United States is 27 for women and 29 for men, up from 23 for women and 26 for men in 1990 and 20 and 22 in 1960. In 1960, 72% of all adults ages 18 and older were married; today, according to the Barna numbers, that number is just 52%.