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married. However, one study found that women today are spending a smallerfraction of their adult lives married than did their counterparts a few decadesago. A much larger proportion of children are being born to unmarriedmothers. As a result, the share of children living in one-parent familiesincreased from 9 percent in 1900 to 28 percent in 1998.Several strands of evidence suggest that people are spending a smaller fractionof their lives married than in 1900. First, people are marrying slightlylater. In 1900 the typical first marriage was between a woman of 22 and aman of 26; now the typical bride is 3 years older and the groom nearly a yearolder. Second, divorce rates are much higher today than at the beginning ofthe century. In 1900, among those aged 35-54, widowhood was far morecommon than divorce. Over the century, the probability of being a widow inthis age range declined markedly, while the probability of being divorced rose(Chart 5-2). The divorce rate, which jumped from around 10 per 1,000married females per year in the mid-1960s to more than 20 per 1,000 in themid-1970s, has drifted down slightly since then but remains high. A thirdreason why people spend a smaller fraction of their lives married is that lifeexpectancy is longer today relative to the typical duration of a marriage. Thenet result of all these forces is that only 56 percent of the population aged 15and over are married today, rather than 68 percent as in 1960. Thus it isprobably not surprising that the proportion of children living in singleparenthouseholds has risen dramatically.Chapter 5 | 169