U.S. married households under 50%

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WASHINGTON, Sept. 30 (UPI) -- Young U.S. adults are putting off marriage longer -- sometimes forever -- resulting in more single-parent families, a non-profit group says.

A Population Reference Bureau report found for the first time, households made up of married couples with and without children dropped below 50 percent of all U.S. households.

"Married-couple families with children -- once the predominant household structure -- now are even outnumbered by one-person households," study co-author Linda A. Jacobsen, vice president of Domestic Programs at Population Reference Bureau, said in a statement.

In 2010, 20 percent of all households included married couples with children -- down from a high of 44 percent in 1960 -- by contrast, people living alone now represent 27 percent of all households, the report said.

By 2012, 46 percent of young adults ages 25-34 were married, down from 55 percent in 2000. The median age at first marriage continues to rise -- 28.1 for men and 26.5 for women in 2011.

In 2010, 41 percent of all births were to unmarried parents, up from 33 percent in 2000. The steepest increases in non-marital births were among women in their 20s.

Women are having fewer children -- the U.S. average is 1.9 children per woman. However, from 1980 to 2010, the women ages 40-44 who were childless went from 10 percent to 19 percent.