(The Christian Post) Nearly half of American children are now born to unmarried parents, according to a new report from the U.N.’s Population Fund, the largest international provider of sexual and reproductive health services. In the report released Wednesday, America is cited along with several developed nations in Europe and Asia where women are giving birth later in life and outside marriage due to what some experts say is partly due to changing religious ideas about marriage.
The trend is also correlated to fertility declines. “Fertility decline between 1970 and 2000 coincided with trends toward later marriage and more cohabitation, divorce and childbearing outside marriage,” UNFPA researchers said. “These trends, however, peaked in some countries, such as Sweden, the United States and Russia, and then reversed after 2004 (Figure 35). In the European Union, the share of births outside marriage reached 42 percent in 2014 — double the level in 1994.” READ MORE
