What is Marriage?

Following WWII the average age of marriage was about twenty-three years old for men, and twenty-one years old for women. In the early 2000s it had risen to twenty-seven and twenty-five respectively. It now sits at just over thirty for men, and just shy of twenty-nine for women. In 1980, only six percent of forty year olds had never been married, that percentage now sits at a quarter. The average modern couple dates for three to six years before eventually getting married (if they even do get hitched). Stats tell a story, and the story here is a culture that doesn’t value marriage. But why?