Meet People School Married Met Work Men Time

In the United States, there is a long tradition of using schools as places for making romantic connections. "Historically" (traditionally), school has been a popular place to meet future husbands or wives, as is probably true in many countries. In 1992, 23% of married Americans said that they meet their "spouse" (husband or wife) at school, such as in high school or at the university. Only 15% of people said they met their spouse at work.

Things see to have changed. In 2006, a similar survey found that only 14% of U.S. married couples first met at school, and 18% met at work. The work "figure" (number) has increased three percentage points, but the school/university number has gone down more dramatically. Why?

While schools were always seen as a place where men and women had time to meet and develop romantic relationships, both men and women "nowadays" (currently; now) are getting married at a much later age than they did 20 years ago. The average age for a man in the U.S. to marry is 27.5 years; for a woman, it's 25.5 years.

There are many reasons for this change. Part of the reason may be "credential inflation" at work. "Credentials" are qualifications, such as a university degree or training. "Inflation" is when something continues to increase over time. Jobs nowadays require people to get higher and better qualifications, such as Master's degrees, so that young people have to wait to marry so that they can finish this additional training.

Perhaps this is one reason why Internet dating has become more popular. As people have fewer opportunities to meet "eligible" (unmarried) men and women, they need to find other ways of meeting people. College students now believe that they need to wait to marry, and so don't start looking for a potential spouse until after they leave school, even though college is probably the one time in their life where they will have a lot of time and opportunity to meet an eligible "mate" (spouse).