According to a New York Times analysis of census results, for the first time, more American women are living without a husband than with one.

In 2005, 51 percent of women said they were living without a spouse. The figure was 35 percent in 1950 and 49 percent in 2000. Also, in 2005, married couples became a minority of all American households for the first time.

There are several factors responsible for this statistical shift. Firstly, women are marrying later or living with unmarried partners more often and for longer periods. And secondly, women are living longer as widows and, after a divorce, are more likely than men to delay remarriage. Although most women eventually do get married.

Emily Zuzik, a 32-year-old musician and model who lives in the East Village of Manhattan, said she was not surprised by the trend.

‘A lot of my friends are divorced or single or living alone,’ Ms. Zuzik said. ‘I know a lot of people in their 30s who have roommates.’

The marriage statistics amongst women of ethnic origin also has a profound influence on these statistics. Only about 30 percent of black women are living with a spouse, compared with about 49 percent of Hispanic women, 55 percent of non-Hispanic white women and more than 60 percent of Asian women.

Even if we discount the relatively small number of cases where this living arrangement is temporary, because the husbands are working out of town, are in the military or are institutionalized, the larger trend is unmistakable.

‘I have not sworn off marriage, but if I do wed, it will be to have a companion with whom I can travel and play parlor games in my old age,’ says Sheila Jamison, who lives in the East Village and works for a media company, is 45 and single.

Similarly, Shelley Fidler, 59, a public policy adviser at a law firm, has sworn off marriage when her 30-year marriage ended.

‘The benefits were completely unforeseen for me,’ Ms. Fidler said, ‘the free time, the amount of time I get to spend with friends, the time I have alone, which I value tremendously, the flexibility in terms of work, travel and cultural events.’

She moved from rural Virginia to the vibrant Adams Morgan neighborhood of Washington, D.C.

Prof. Stephanie Coontz, director of public education for the Council on Contemporary Families, a nonprofit research group, and author of ‘Marriage, a History: How Love Conquered Marriage,’ says this was probably unprecedented with the possible exception of major wartime mobilizations and when black couples were separated during slavery.

‘This is yet another of the inexorable signs that there is no going back to a world where we can assume that marriage is the main institution that organizes people’s lives.
Most of these women will marry, or have married. But on average, Americans now spend half their adult lives outside marriage.’

William H. Frey, a demographer with the Brookings Institution, a research group in Washington, opines that the shift is ‘a clear tipping point, reflecting the culmination of post-1960 trends associated with greater independence and more flexible lifestyles for women.’

‘For better or worse, women are less dependent on men or the institution of marriage,’ Dr. Frey said. ‘Younger women understand this better, and are preparing to live longer parts of their lives alone or with non-married partners. For many older boomer and senior women, the institution of marriage did not hold the promise they might have hoped for, growing up in an ‘Ozzie and Harriet’ era.’

According to the marital status category in the Census Bureau’s latest American Community Survey, among more than 117 million women over the age of 15, 63 million are married. Of those, 3.1 million are legally separated and 2.4 million said their husbands were not living at home for one reason or another.

That brings the number of American women actually living with a spouse to 57.5 million, compared with the 59.9 million who are single or whose husbands were not living at home when the survey was taken in 2005.
Some people who describe themselves as separated eventually reunite with their spouses. And some of those situations, which the census identifies as ’spouse absent’ and ‘other,’ are temporary.

However, a larger number of men are married and living with their spouse - about 53 percent compared with 49 percent among women.
‘Since women continue to outlive men, they have reached the non-marital tipping point - more non-married than married,’ Dr. Frey said. ‘This suggests that most girls growing up today can look forward to spending more of their lives outside of a traditional marriage.’

Pamela J. Smock, a researcher at the University of Michigan Population Studies Center, agreed, adding that ‘Men also remarry more quickly than women after a divorce, and both are increasingly likely to cohabit rather than remarry after a divorce.’

The proportion of married people, especially among younger age groups, has been declining for decades. Between 1950 and 2000, the share of women 15-to-24 who were married plummeted to 16 percent, from 42 percent. Among 25-to-34-year-olds, the proportion dropped to 58 percent, from 82 percent.

Besse Gardner, 24, said she and her boyfriend met as college freshmen and started living together last April ‘for all the wrong reasons’ - they found a great apartment on the beach in Los Angeles. ‘We do not see living together as an end or even for the rest of our lives - it’s just fun right now, ’she says.

Elissa B. Terris, 59, of Marietta, Ga., divorced in 2005 after being married for 34 years and raising an adult daughter, says, ‘Marriage kind of aged me because there weren’t options. Now I have choices. One night I slept on the other side of the bed, and I thought, I like this side.’

She said she was returning to college to get a master’s degree, had taken photography classes and was auditioning for a play.

The trend could ultimately shape social and workplace policies, including the ways government and employers distribute benefits.

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