Men Smitten With Saying ‘I Do’ Again, Women Not So Much

Americans are not as eager to say “I do” these days. But as the number of overall marriages in the U.S. has dropped, remarriages are on the rise.

According to a new report from Pew Research, 40 percent of new marriages include at least one partner who has been married before.

“Most currently divorced or widowed men are open to the idea of remarriage, but women in the same circumstances are less likely to be open to the idea,” the report said.

While 65 percent of previously married men either want to (or would consider) tying the knot again, just 43 percent of women would consider remarrying. More than half (54 percent) of women said they’d pass on another marriage. The report says:

The gender gap in attitudes mirrors a gap in remarriage patterns: Among previously married adults, men are more likely than women to have remarried. Fully 64 percent of divorced or widowed men have remarried, compared with 52 percent of previously married women.

Nearly 42 million U.S. adults have been married more than once, a huge spike from 22 million in 1980 and 14 million in 1960. Remarriages are on the rise because more people are available to say “I do” again, thanks to an increasing divorce rate and a longer life expectancy, effectively boosting the number of widows and widowers and increasing the years in which to “make, dissolve and remake unions,” the report said.

Not surprisingly, there are economic benefits to remarrying. Gretchen Livingston, a senior researcher at Pew and author of the report, told U.S. News & World Report that pooling resources is economically efficient:

We can’t tell whether the marriage or remarriage is contributing to the financial well-being of those people or if there was something about those people to begin with that made them more likely to remarry … but the fact is, regardless if it’s your first marriage or a remarriage, you tend to be better off financially than if you’re divorced.

While 19 percent of divorced adults live in poverty, just 7 percent of remarried adults have the same economic struggles. Divorced adults also have a median income of $25,000, $5,000 less than remarried adults.

Other report findings include:

• Ethnicity. “Fully 6 in 10 previously married whites have remarried, compared with 51 percent of Hispanics, 48 percent of blacks and 46 percent of Asian-Americans,” the study said.
• The third (or fourth) time may be the charm. Eight percent of newlyweds in 2013 had been married three times or more.

Have you been married more than once? Why did you decide to tie the knot again? Share your comments below or on our Facebook page.

Now, here’s a video about how to successfully merge money and marriage.