After decades of decline, the traditional American family is mounting an unexpected comeback.
Once dismissed as a relic of the 1950s, the married-with-children model is suddenly back in fashion – in homes, on screens and in the hearts of a new generation of Americans.
More importantly, the data backs it up.
‘Divorce is down and the share of children in two-parent families is up,’ says Brad Wilcox, a conservative sociologist at the University of Virginia.
‘Marriage as a social institution is showing new strength.’
In a blockbuster new study for the Institute for Family Studies, Wilcox reveals that after decades of plummeting marriage rates, surging divorces and a boom in single-parent households, the tide may finally be turning.
His research shows that divorce rates have dropped to a 50-year low, and the share of American children growing up in stable, married households has ticked upward for the first time in decades.
The evidence is everywhere, from Hollywood A-listers to social media influencers and even in the corridors of political power.
It’s a remarkable shift from the gloomy predictions of just a few years ago.
In 2019, a staggering 88 percent of Americans said they believed divorce was on the rise, while surveys as recent as 2023 found many were pessimistic about the future of marriage.
But Wilcox says such doom-laden views are out of step with reality. ‘Most married couples will make it,’ he says.
He points to data showing that while more than half of Baby Boomer marriages ended in divorce, only around 40 percent of today’s newlyweds are projected to split.
The institution has become ‘more selective,’ Wilcox said.
‘With more educated, affluent and religious couples becoming more likely to put a ring on it than the general population, marriage has been stabilizing in one cohort after another.’
At the heart of this quiet revolution are millennials and Gen Z couples, who are often more intentional about their unions, frequently better educated and more open to traditional values than many would expect.
Take Stranger Things star Millie Bobby Brown, 21, who married Jake Bongiovi, 23, in May 2024.
She told ABC News they had frank conversations about their political views, home life and plans for children before they tied the knot.
‘We talked about the kind of family we want to build,’ she said. ‘The kind of relationship we’re looking for.’
That vision is being echoed by such celebrity parents as Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively, who’ve spoken of their efforts to raise their four children with stability, despite their Hollywood careers. ‘We try to be as present as possible,’ Reynolds said.
Similarly, Chris Pratt and Katherine Schwarzenegger have become poster parents for family-focused celebrity life.
On Instagram and TikTok, the ‘trad wife’ movement – women embracing traditional domestic roles – is booming.
Such influencer couples as Cole and Savannah LaBrant, with their photogenic kids and overtly Christian lifestyle, are drawing millions of fans online who crave something more grounded.
In politics, too, traditional families are on display. Vice President J.D. Vance and wife Usha, a lawyer and mother of three, are unabashed about their family-first values.
Ivanka Trump and husband Jared Kushner, meanwhile, have kept a relatively low profile lately, but continue to project the image of a close-knit, well-heeled clan.
Wilcox’s report shows that the number of children born outside of marriage – once rising steadily since the 1960s – has stopped climbing.
The rate peaked at 41 percent in 2009, but now sits just below 40 percent.
And perhaps more importantly, the number of children raised in intact, biological, married families has risen from 51 percent in 2014 to 54 percent in 2024, according to federal data.
Wilcox draws the conclusions that ‘these reversals mean that marriage is back as the cornerstone of American family life’, and that ‘stable marriage is increasingly the way that most men and women are raising children.’
While social critics once predicted that cohabitation, single parenting or ‘chosen families’ would replace marriage, Wilcox argues that those trends have plateaued.
The so-called ‘family revolution’ sparked in the 1960s may be running out of steam.
‘Marriage is not dead yet,’ he writes. ‘In fact, it looks like a marriage renaissance may be in the offing.’
And it’s not just good for adults. Wilcox claims research consistently shows that children raised by their own stably married parents are more likely to succeed in school, avoid poverty and steer clear of crime.
After hitting rock bottom in 2012 when only 64 percent of kids lived with married parents, that figure has rebounded to 66 percent.
For Wilcox, the bottom line is clear: Marriage works. And, he says, for the first time in decades, Americans are starting to believe in it again.