Most 30 & under have baby before marriage

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CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va., March 15 (UPI) -- A majority of young U.S. parents age 30 and under have their first child before they marry, researchers say.

A report sponsored by the National Marriage Project at the University of Virginia, the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy and the RELATE Institute found for women, the median age of first birth is age 25.7. The median age of first marriage is 26.5.

The average age at which men and women marry has reached historic highs -- age 26.5 for women and 28.7 for men, the report said.

By age 25, 44 percent of U.S. women have given birth, while 38 percent were married. Forty-eight percent of all first births now fall outside of marriage, the report said.

Among the least economically privileged, women having children before marriage occurred decades ago as part of a dramatic increase in unmarried pregnancy, the report said.

Fifty-four percent of U.S. women with high school diploma and perhaps some college, but not a four-year degree, have a child before marriage, but college-educated women typically have their first child more than two years after marrying, the report said.