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Unmarried America
Say good-bye to the traditional family. Here's how the new demographics will change business and society.

... The U.S. Census Bureau's newest numbers show that married-couple households -- the dominant cohort since the country's founding -- have slipped from nearly 80% in the 1950s to just 50.7% today. That means that the U.S.'s 86 million single adults could soon define the new majority. Already, unmarrieds make up 42% of the workforce, 40% of home buyers, 35% of voters, and one of the most potent -- if pluralistic -- consumer groups on record.

Yet even as marriage is on the wane, infatuation with the institution has never seemed so fierce -- from the debate over same-sex unions to President Bush's marriage-promotion campaign to reality TV's depiction of wedlock as a psychological Super Bowl. The culture may be so marriage-crazed, though, precisely because the rite is so threatened. Indeed, we are delaying marriage longer than ever, cohabiting in greater numbers, forming more same-sex partnerships, living far longer, and remarrying less after we split up.

What many once thought of as the fringe is becoming the new normal. Families consisting of breadwinner dads and stay-at-home moms now account for just one-tenth of all households. Married couples with kids, which made up nearly every residence a century ago, now total just 25% -- with the number projected to drop to 20% by 2010, says the Census Bureau. By then, nearly 30% of homes will be inhabited by someone who lives alone....