Number of unmarried young men surges 47% in US since 2000 - LifeSite

Sat Aug 22, 2026 - 1:18 pm EDT (LifeSiteNews) — According to a recent report by the Institute for Family Studies (IFS), the number of unmarried young males has grown precipitously since the turn of the century. “Over the past 25 years, the gap between the number of unmarried and married men ages 20-39 has widened from 2.6 million to a whopping 15 million,” University of Virginia sociology professor Brad Wilcox noted on X. Since 2000, the number of unmarried men in that age group rose from 47% from 20.7 million to 30.4 million in 2025 while the number of married men decreased from 18.1 million to 15.4 million. “Today, there are nearly twice as many unmarried men in this age group as married ones,” Wilcox and Isabella Dini observed Friday. “While some of these men may simply be delaying marriage until their 40s or later, many will spend the rest of their lives as bachelors,” they explained. “Because married adults consistently report being happier than their unmarried peers, the sheer …