Marriage Rates Among Latinas Are Falling—Here’s What’s Really Behind the Decline

Fewer Latinas are saying ‘sí’ to marriage on both sides of the border. Across the United States and Latin America, more of us are choosing singleness, cohabitation, or simply waiting until a partnership actually aligns with our lives and goals. Factors influencing the decision to postpone or skip marriage include economic conditions, greater independence for women, a preference for delaying weddings, or choosing cohabitation, according to a 2024 study by the National Center for Family & Marriage Research (NCFMR) at Bowling Green State University.

Why Latinas Are Delaying or Ditching Marriage

The study, titled Marriage: More than a Century of Change, 1900-2022 and conducted by Jaden Loo, covers data from 1950 to 2022, drawing from the National Vital Statistics, decennial censuses, and the American Community Survey. It found that around four in ten Latinas were married, while the share of married women from other racial and ethnic groups also declined, reaching 39%. Since 1940, the proportion of married White women has fallen. 

Earlier research, including NCFMR’s 2013 study, showed that marriage rates among Latinas had dropped between 33% and 60% since 1950, with roughly 43% of Hispanic women and 51% of White women married at that time. The 2024 update confirms this long-term trend and provides a more detailed picture of shifting family structures in the United States.

Socioeconomic Factors and the “Luxury” of Marriage

For Latinas, this shift is about more than trends in a spreadsheet. It’s shaped by migration, racism, machismo, gendered expectations to “sacrifice for the family,” and a labor market that often underpays us even when we’re more educated than our partners.

Financial instability remains a major factor contributing to declining marriage rates, especially among lower-income groups. A 2022 study by the Center for Latin American, Caribbean, and Latino Studies (CLACLS) at CUNY, A Portrait of Partnership Statuses in the United States between 1990 and 2017, found that poverty is closely linked to partnership status, particularly affecting Latina women.

Cohabitation, Not “Failure”: How Latinas Are Rewriting Family

In the United States, just 28% of Latinas living in poverty were married, compared with 52% of Latinas in better financial situations. The research also highlighted a growing “class gap” in family formation, showing that low-income couples often view marriage as a luxury that requires financial stability—steady employment, housing, and freedom from debt. In 2017, a significant share of low-income Latinas were cohabiting, confirming that economic instability often leads women to choose cohabitation over marriage.

Across Latin America, low wages and precarious employment among men have further diminished marriage’s appeal as a path to economic stability. Studies from 2024 and 2025, including CEPAL’s Economic Study of Latin America and the Caribbean and the International Labour Organization’s Labor Outlook 2024, confirm persistent informality, low wages, and a lack of financial security, limiting men’s ability to act as stable providers.

Informal employment has become a structural challenge, particularly for young men with less education. By 2024, roughly half of workers in Latin America and the Caribbean were in informal employment, with youth and lower-educated workers especially affected. Irregular income makes family planning difficult, prompting women to seek autonomy or prefer cohabitation.

Women’s growing independence, along with the “gender revolution,” has shifted traditional marriage dynamics, where women once relied on a husband for financial support. Access to higher education and career opportunities allows Latina women to delay marriage, focus on professional goals, and reduce the need for a spouse as a financial safety net.

The Education Gap and Rise of the Single Latina

Education, economic factors, and political differences have shifted women’s priorities, making marriage a choice rather than a necessity. A 2025 UNFPA report links low fertility and economic uncertainty to delayed marriage. Analyses by Aspen Economic Strategy Group and The Wall Street Journal identify the gap between women’s progress and men’s stagnation as a major reason for declining U.S. marriage rates.

Aspen’s analysis, based on CPS and census data, shows that in 2023, 51.4% of U.S. women aged 18 to 40 were unmarried and not in a relationship, up from 41.8% in 2000. The Wall Street Journal’s report The Rise of the Single Woman highlights an “inverse gender gap” in education: in 2024, 47% of U.S. women aged 25 to 34 held a college degree, compared with 37% of men the same age.

What This Shift Means for the Future of Latinas and Family

For Latinas, declining marriage rates don’t signal a break from family, they signal a break from EXPECTATION. More Latinas are prioritizing emotional safety, financial autonomy, and relationships that complement their goals rather than restrict them. As stability becomes a precondition not a reward, marriage shifts from something women “must do” to something women “choose when ready.” For some, that means co-parenting arrangements outside marriage; for others, it means long-term partnerships, delayed timelines, or embracing singlehood as a valid life path. What emerges is a more expansive definition of family, one that honors their personal agency, shared responsibility, chosen networks, and the freedom to build or design a life on one's own terms not on tradition’s demand.

In conclusion, marriage is no longer an obligatory milestone for any woman, especially the less traditional, unconventional Latina but a conscious decision based on stability, personal freedom, and life goals.