{"id":10643,"date":"2026-05-07T18:37:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-07T18:37:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/strongermarriages\/?p=10643"},"modified":"2026-05-07T18:37:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T18:37:10","slug":"new-poll-shows-gen-z-thinks-life-can-be-fulfilling-without-marriage-family","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/strongermarriages\/2026\/05\/new-poll-shows-gen-z-thinks-life-can-be-fulfilling-without-marriage-family.html","title":{"rendered":"New Poll Shows Gen Z Thinks Life Can Be Fulfilling Without Marriage, Family"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Adobe Stock<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A new poll is showing that Gen Z adults think traditional goals like getting married and having a family aren\u2019t essential to a fulfilling life. Barna released its \u201cThe State of Today\u2019s Family<\/a>\u201d 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.<\/p>\n

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<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n

The same trend resides amongst Gen Z, with concerns about the economy and mental health issues causing young adults to put off marriage later. \u201cYoung adults today report high levels of anxiety, uncertainty, and emotional complexity in their daily lives \u2014 factors that may shape how they approach long-term decisions like marriage,\u201d the study noted. \u201cRising 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the Bible doesn\u2019t make marriage a requirement for life (both Jesus and Paul were single), Pastor Mike Novotny, author of \u201cNewlywed: A Christian Guide for Loving Year One,\u201d told CBN<\/em><\/a> he hopes young adults will reconsider putting off marriage. \u201cI got married when I was 22. [My wife] Kim had just turned 22,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd 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 \u2014\u00a0I 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].\u201d<\/p>\n

A recent Slate<\/em><\/a> 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.\u00a0 It\u2019s a trend she believes will increase.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A new poll is showing that Gen Z adults think traditional goals like getting married and having a family aren\u2019t essential to a fulfilling life. Barna released its \u201cThe State of Today\u2019s Family\u201d report, which focused on how Gen Z young adults look at such traditional values. The study looked at 3,500 young adults and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":516,"featured_media":10646,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10643","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nNew Poll Shows Gen Z Thinks Life Can Be Fulfilling Without Marriage, Family<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Barna report finds Gen Z values marriage but says children and traditional family goals aren\u2019t essential to a fulfilling life.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/strongermarriages\/2026\/05\/new-poll-shows-gen-z-thinks-life-can-be-fulfilling-without-marriage-family.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"New Poll Shows Gen Z Thinks Life Can Be Fulfilling Without Marriage, Family\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Barna report finds Gen Z values marriage but says children and traditional family goals aren\u2019t essential to a fulfilling life.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/strongermarriages\/2026\/05\/new-poll-shows-gen-z-thinks-life-can-be-fulfilling-without-marriage-family.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Stronger Marriages\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-05-07T18:37:10+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/413\/2026\/05\/Without-Marriage_credit-Adobe-Stock.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"900\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Cecilia Buchanan\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"New Poll Shows Gen Z Thinks Life Can Be Fulfilling Without Marriage, Family","description":"Barna report finds Gen Z values marriage but says children and traditional family goals aren\u2019t essential to a fulfilling life.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/strongermarriages\/2026\/05\/new-poll-shows-gen-z-thinks-life-can-be-fulfilling-without-marriage-family.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"New Poll Shows Gen Z Thinks Life Can Be Fulfilling Without Marriage, Family","og_description":"Barna report finds Gen Z values marriage but says children and traditional family goals aren\u2019t essential to a fulfilling life.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/strongermarriages\/2026\/05\/new-poll-shows-gen-z-thinks-life-can-be-fulfilling-without-marriage-family.html","og_site_name":"Stronger Marriages","article_published_time":"2026-05-07T18:37:10+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":900,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/413\/2026\/05\/Without-Marriage_credit-Adobe-Stock.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Cecilia Buchanan","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/strongermarriages\/2026\/05\/new-poll-shows-gen-z-thinks-life-can-be-fulfilling-without-marriage-family.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/strongermarriages\/2026\/05\/new-poll-shows-gen-z-thinks-life-can-be-fulfilling-without-marriage-family.html","name":"New Poll Shows Gen Z Thinks Life Can Be Fulfilling Without Marriage, Family","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/strongermarriages\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/strongermarriages\/2026\/05\/new-poll-shows-gen-z-thinks-life-can-be-fulfilling-without-marriage-family.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/strongermarriages\/2026\/05\/new-poll-shows-gen-z-thinks-life-can-be-fulfilling-without-marriage-family.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/413\/2026\/05\/Without-Marriage_credit-Adobe-Stock.jpg","datePublished":"2026-05-07T18:37:10+00:00","dateModified":"2026-05-07T18:37:10+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/strongermarriages\/#\/schema\/person\/450625ec20bf3e8a84060b9321455f3d"},"description":"Barna report finds Gen Z values marriage but says children and traditional family goals aren\u2019t essential to a fulfilling life.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/strongermarriages\/2026\/05\/new-poll-shows-gen-z-thinks-life-can-be-fulfilling-without-marriage-family.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/strongermarriages\/2026\/05\/new-poll-shows-gen-z-thinks-life-can-be-fulfilling-without-marriage-family.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/strongermarriages\/2026\/05\/new-poll-shows-gen-z-thinks-life-can-be-fulfilling-without-marriage-family.html#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/413\/2026\/05\/Without-Marriage_credit-Adobe-Stock.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/413\/2026\/05\/Without-Marriage_credit-Adobe-Stock.jpg","width":1200,"height":900,"caption":"Adobe Stock"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/strongermarriages\/2026\/05\/new-poll-shows-gen-z-thinks-life-can-be-fulfilling-without-marriage-family.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/strongermarriages"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"New Poll Shows Gen Z Thinks Life Can Be Fulfilling Without Marriage, Family"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/strongermarriages\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/strongermarriages\/","name":"Stronger Marriages","description":"Navigating Faith and Relationships","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/strongermarriages\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/strongermarriages\/#\/schema\/person\/450625ec20bf3e8a84060b9321455f3d","name":"Brandy Grenier","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/strongermarriages\/author\/bgrenier"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/strongermarriages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10643","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/strongermarriages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/strongermarriages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/strongermarriages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/516"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/strongermarriages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10643"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/strongermarriages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10643\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10649,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/strongermarriages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10643\/revisions\/10649"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/strongermarriages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10646"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/strongermarriages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10643"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/strongermarriages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10643"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/strongermarriages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10643"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}