A study published in Evolution and Human Behavior’s September edition found that high income men are more likely to marry, less likely to divorce, more likely to remarry if divorced, and are less likely to be childless than low income men.
Using Census data from 2014, the study also found that for women income was not associated with the probability of marriage, and high income was associated with higher probability of divorce and a lower probability of having children.
“Men in the highest income category are about 57 percentage points more likely to marry than men in the lowest income category,” Hopcroft explained. (RELATED: Here’s Why Hungary Is Incentivizing Children, Marriage)
Experts sound the alarm on declining birth rates among younger generations: “It’s a crisis” https://t.co/MkdeBtVFiC
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The results suggest that women are more likely to choose to marry men with good financial prospects, while a woman’s financial prospects are less important to men when choosing a marriage partner, according to the study’s author.
The study also found that high income men were more likely to become biological fathers. “Men in the highest income group are about 41 percentage points more likely to ever have children than men in the lowest income group. The opposite is true for women—high-income women are more likely to be childless,” Hopcroft said.
Fertility rates in the U.S. have been declining for years and fell to an all-time low of 1.6 in 2020. The population replacement rate is about 2.1.
The same trend is occurring globally. A New York Times article published in May described an “epochal fall in fertility” across the world, due in part to women’s gains in education and the availability of contraception.