1. Getting married as a teenager is the highest known risk factor for divorce.

People who marry as teenagers are two to three times more likely to get divorced than people who marry in their twenties or older.

2. The most likely way to find a future spouse is through an introduction from family, friends or acquaintances.

Despite the romantic notion that people meet and fall in love by chance or fate, evidence suggests that family networks are important in bringing together people with similar interests and backgrounds, especially when it comes to selecting a spouse. According to a large-scale national sexuality survey, nearly 60 percent of married people were introduced by family, friends, co-workers or other acquaintances.

3. The more similar people are in values, backgrounds, and life goals, the more likely they are to have a successful marriage.

Opposites may attract but may not live together harmoniously as married couples. People who share common backgrounds and similar social networks are more suitable as spouses than people who are very different in their values, shared interests and life goals.

4. Women are much more likely to get married if they do not become single mothers before getting married.

Having a child out of wedlock reduces your chances of ever getting married. Despite the growing number of potential spouses with children, one study noted, having children remains one of the least desirable characteristics a potential spouse can possess. The only characteristic that men and women consider even less desirable than having children is the inability to hold a steady job.

5. Both college-educated women and men are more likely to be married and less likely to be divorced than people with lower levels of education.

Despite occasional news stories predicting lifelong singleness for college-educated women, these predictions have been proven false. Although the first generation of college-educated women (those who earned bachelor’s degrees in the 1920s) married less frequently than their less-educated peers, the opposite is true today. College-educated women’s chances of getting married are better than those of less educated women. However, the growing gender gap in college education may make it more difficult for college women to find similarly educated men in the future. This is already a problem for African American female college graduates, who greatly outnumber African American male college graduates.

6. Cohabitation before marriage has not been useful as a “trial marriage.”

People who have multiple cohabiting relationships before marriage are more likely to experience marital conflict, marital unhappiness, and eventually divorce than people who do not cohabit before marriage. Researchers attribute some, but not all, of these differences to different characteristics of people who cohabit (the so-called “selection effect”) rather than to the cohabiting experience itself. It has been hypothesized that the negative effects of cohabitation on future marital success may diminish as cohabitation becomes a common experience among today’s young adults. However, according to a recent study of co habitating couples who were married between 1981 and 1997, negative effects persist among younger couples, supporting the view that the cohabitation experience itself contributes to problems in marriage.

7. Marriage helps people generate income and wealth.

Compared to those who simply live together, people who marry do better financially. Men become more productive after marriage; They earn 10 to 40 percent more than single men with similar education and work history. Marital social norms that encourage healthy, productive behavior and wealth accumulation play an important role. Part of married couples’ greater wealth is due to their more efficient specialization, combination of resources, and   saving more. Married people also receive more money from their families than single people (including cohabiting couples), probably because families consider marriage to be more permanent and binding than a cohabiting union.

8. Married people are more likely to have a more emotionally and physically satisfying sex life than single people or those who simply live together.

Contrary to popular belief that married sex is boring and infrequent, married people report higher levels of sexual satisfaction than sexually active singles and cohabiting couples, according to the most comprehensive and recent survey on sexuality. Forty-two percent of wives said they found sex extremely emotionally and physically satisfying, compared to only 31 percent of single women who had a sexual partner. And 48 percent of husbands said sex was extremely emotionally satisfying, compared to just 37 percent of cohabiting men.

The higher level of commitment in marriage is likely the reason for the reported high level of sexual satisfaction; Marriage commitment contributes to a greater sense of trust and security, less sexual relations with drugs and alcohol, and greater mutual communication between the couple.

9. People who grow up in a family torn apart by divorce are less likely to get married and much more likely to get divorced when they do get married.

According to one study, the risk of divorce almost triples if you marry someone who also comes from a broken home. However, the increased risk is much lower if the spouse is someone who grew up in a happy, intact family.

10. For large segments of the population, the risk of divorce is well below 50 percent.

Although the overall divorce rate in the United States remains close to 50 percent of all marriages, it has been gradually declining over the past two decades. Furthermore, the risk of divorce is well below 50 percent for educated people marrying for the first time, and even lower for people who expect to marry at least until their mid-twenties, who have not lived with many different partners before. Before getting married, they also maintain a strong spiritual conviction and marry someone of the same faith.

Source: National Marriage Project