Young Marrieds Are Staying Married

Do we have our divorced parents to thank?

- Hannah Smothers

Millennials are on a killing spree. Plastic straws, mayonnaise, Hooters restaurants, fabric softener, the existence of middle children...if previous generations held it near and dear to their hearts, we’ve made sure it’s almost ceased to exist. And not to toot our own horns or anything, but our latest victim may be our most impressive yet. According to recent research, millennials have officially decimated the divorce rate.

While exact numbers are weirdly hard to come by, experts estimate that the rate has fallen roughly 24 percent from its peak in 1981—and millennials are a huge reason why. (As for that old “50 percent of married couples get divorced” stat you grew up hearing and fear: “It’s unclear if it was ever true, and it’s certainly not true now,” says Justin Wolfers, a professor of public policy and economics at the University of Michigan and a leading authority on divorce in America.)

Stop your eye roll—this isn’t just a side effect of fewer young people getting married. No matter how you slice it, the numbers that do exist all reach the same conclusion: Hookup-loving, debt-ridden, career-obsessed millennials are responsible for bringing down divorce, says Wolfers. And experts predict that the number of successful long-term unions will continue to increase over the next decades.

So how did we do it? Watching our parents duke it out from the backseat of the car on painfully awkward family vacations certainly didn’t set us up for success...or, um, did it? While older generations have been chastising our horniness and commitment phobia, we’ve been out here perfecting the eternal bond. And lucky for you (especially you, next-gen), we’re in the mood to share our secrets.

Big fear of the big D