Linda J. Waite

The number of people who marry in their lifetime has declined since 1950, and an increasing number of couples are cohabiting—living together in a sexual relationship without being married—before marriage or in lieu of marriage. In the following article, Linda J. Waite contends that the decline of marriage is a problem because marriage offers considerable benefits to couples and their children. She argues that married people enjoy better health, longer lives, more satisfactory sex, higher wages, and greater wealth than unmarried people. Moreover, children of married people do better in school and are less likely to be poor than children of unmarried people. Waite concludes that society should endorse public policies that support marriage. Waite is a sociology professor and the co-author of The Case for Marriage: Why Married People Are Healthier...