Do you have marriage crazy?
Are you happily unmarried?
Why marriage rate declined?
In 1960, 72% of all American adults were married; in 2010 just 51% were, according to the Pew Research Center., external. The number dropped sharply by 5% in the most recent year, 2009-10.
Americans are certainly waiting longer before they tie the knot - the average age for a first marriage is at an all-time high of 26.5 years for women and 28.7 for men - or else opting to cohabit, live alone or not re-marry when they get divorced.
In the UK, women are, on average, waiting until the age of 30 before getting married, while the average age of a UK bridegroom is 32. In both countries, the number of weddings is at an all-time low.
"It is no longer necessary to be married to someone in order to pursue financial support and I believe this has had a huge impact on couples who have children together and, let's say, 20 years ago would get married in order to establish legitimacy and then, hence, get financial support."
In some communities, single parenthood is now the norm, she argues, and Americans have become more comfortable with "non-traditional" households.
America also has the world's highest divorce rate - and that has undoubtedly shaken the confidence of many young people in the institution of marriage.
Rhyan Romaine and her partner Seth have been together for six years but have resisted pressure from friends and family to rush into marriage.
"I think it's a fear that I have too, even though my parents are married. It's scary, having seen personal friends who have got married right out of college and who now are in their early thirties and dating again."
But Miss Romaine, a regional grant director for the American Loan Association, believes there is still a "lot of pressure" on young women to get married in America, where the idealised, fairytale wedding remains a staple of Hollywood romantic comedies and reality TV shows.
"I call it the 'marriage crazy'," she says. "All of a sudden this fever comes over women at a certain age. They get to about 24 or 25 and they have to hurry up and get married."
For many young people, marriage is simply the next item on their personal "checklist" after high school, college and career, she argues.
Nearly two-thirds of American adults with college degrees (64%) are married, compared with just 47% among those with a high school education. That is in sharp contrast to 1960, when the most educated and the least educated were about equally likely to be married.
He believes the decline in marriage is largely down to a sharp fall in the earning power and job prospects of non-college educated American men, many of whom now lack the means to get married, leaving their offspring "doubly disadvantaged" - lacking both assets and a stable home.
During the 1990s, divorce rates in Europe and America were the highest in the world, with almost half of all marriages ending in divorce. But since then, the trend has reversed and divorce rates in the West have slowed. Meanwhile, however, the number of couples divorcing in other parts of the world is on the rise.