Fewer high school girls want marriage, kids despite steady desire among boys: study

The share of 12th graders who say they plan to get married has declined precipitously among girls, and fewer of them are interested in having children, too, according to a new report from the Pew Research Center.

Data for the report was collected by the University of Michigan’s Monitoring the Future project, which is an ongoing study of the behaviors, attitudes and values of Americans from adolescence through adulthood. The study surveys more than 25,000 eighth, 10th, and 12th-grade students annually.


Pew researchers identified the massive shift in thinking among 12th-grade girls after comparing survey responses of 12th graders in 1993 to the responses of 12th graders in 2023.

The data show that overall, 67% of America’s 12th graders in 2023 say they will likely choose to get married someday, compared to 80% in 1993. Another 24% in 2023 weren’t sure whether they would choose to get married, an increase from the 16% who said the same in 1993. The share of students in the cohort who said they will not get married increased from 5% to 9% over the period.

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