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Half of Adults in Chicago Have Never Married, Study Says

By DNAinfo Staff | January 23, 2017 5:38am | Updated on February 14, 2017 1:14pm

Editor's note: This story was originally published on Jan. 23, 2017.

CHICAGO — Nearly half of adults in the city have never been married, second-highest in the nation, according to a new study.

Some 49.7 percent of Chicago adults have never been married, just behind Philadelphia's 51.5 percent, according to the study by the Pew Charitable Trusts.

Nationally, about 33.5 percent of adults have never married, according to figures from 2015. Ten years earlier, about 28.1 percent of American adults had never been married.

The study used figures from the U.S. Census Bureau, which defines adults as those older than 15.

The report says the national numbers reflect more young people living in cities as well as poverty.

"Social scientists have long noted that marriage rates vary according to income, with lower-income adults less likely to be married than those with higher incomes," wrote Pew researcher Larry Eichel and Katie Martin.

The report also notes that Americans are marrying later. For first marriages, the median age was 26.2 in 2005 vs. 28.7 in 2015.

Here are the Chicago numbers of people never married going back to 2005:

2015: 49.7 percent

2014: 49.1 percent

2013: 49.3 percent

2012: 48.4 percent

2011: 49.3 percent

2010: 48.5 percent

2009: 48.1 percent

2008: 46.9 percent

2007: 45.1 percent

2006: 45.0 percent

2005: 41.9 percent

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