A new poll is showing that Gen Z adults think traditional goals like getting married and having a family aren’t essential to a fulfilling life. Barna released its “The State of Today’s Family” report, which focused on how Gen Z young adults look at such traditional values. The study looked at 3,500 young adults and found that 74% believe they can have a fulfilling life without children. Sixty-seven percent believed that marriage is necessary for raising children in a stable environment.

Still, 78% of Gen Z adults plan for marriage to be part of their future someday. 81% stated that they still believed in the value of marriage as well. The lesser focus on children comes at a time when there are rising concerns of declining birth rates in the United States. To date, birth rates have dropped to a historic low of 1.6 live births per woman. Experts point to women delaying childbirth later, which leads to a smaller fertility window. They are also delaying marriage, with the average age of first marriage for men being around 30, while it is 28 for women.

The same trend resides amongst Gen Z, with concerns about the economy and mental health issues causing young adults to put off marriage later. “Young adults today report high levels of anxiety, uncertainty, and emotional complexity in their daily lives — factors that may shape how they approach long-term decisions like marriage,” the study noted. “Rising costs of housing, education, and daily life likely add to that calculus, making the timing of marriage feel consequential in a way it may not have for earlier generations.”

While the Bible doesn’t make marriage a requirement for life (both Jesus and Paul were single), Pastor Mike Novotny, author of “Newlywed: A Christian Guide for Loving Year One,” told CBN he hopes young adults will reconsider putting off marriage. “I got married when I was 22. [My wife] Kim had just turned 22,” he said. “And the fact that we could be young together, get our first home together, learn how to do chores together, learn how to make a budget together — I think it would be harder to like have our own independent lives and then try to have to compromise on a thousand things, because we both have the way that we do [those things].”

A recent Slate article, however, offered some hope. It cited a study from Arielle Kuperberg, a demographer and sociologist at the University of Maryland, who analyzed data from more than 14,000 undergraduates across 44 colleges, including elite universities, where students are typically the least likely to get married while in college. Kuperberg found a 33% increase in the number of people who married in college since 2019.  It’s a trend she believes will increase.