There’s a 60 percentage point difference between the places where married family life is strongest and where it is almost entirely gone.
CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA, UNITED STATES, October 8, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ — The Institute for Family Studies released Marriage Deserts: Mapping America’s Family Divide, a report and set of interactive maps by Chris Bullivant and Ken Burchfiel. Drawing on 2020 Census data, this report shows where married families are common and where they are rare across areas of roughly 135,000 people.
The report groups together two new ideas: Marriage deserts and marriage gardens. These are areas that show, among other variables, how common marriage is in certain communities. Deserts and Gardens look at the prevalence of marriage, and how many children are growing up in and around married two parent homes; a strong predictor of a community’s overall success.
Key findings:
A 60-point marriage gap. In the largest marriage deserts, only 13 to 17 percent of working-age householders are married. In the marriage gardens, 74 to 79 percent of couples are.
An even wider gap for married families. Across the largest married-family deserts, fewer than 1 in 4 households with children are headed by married couples. In married-family gardens, nearly 9 in 10 are, marking a seismic disparity in family structure.
Cities on one side, suburbs on the other. Sometimes in close proximity. Marriage deserts cluster in the urban cores of major metros across the Midwest, Northeast, and South. Gardens sit in the suburbs and exurbs, with Texas and Utah standing out. Some of the biggest marriage gardens are the suburban areas of urban marriage deserts.
The most divided states hold both extremes. Six states, California, Illinois, Maryland, New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, contain both the country’s largest deserts and its largest gardens, in terms of individual and grouped communities.
Children cluster where marriage does. Married-family gardens have roughly twice the share of households with children as married-family deserts. This finding is consistent with prior research showing the importance of marriage for fertility.
“Our analysis of marriage rates across the US uncovered some major differences,”said Ken Burchfiel, Research Fellow at IFS. “In around 11% of the areas we studied, fewer than 33% of householders ages 15-64 are married; in another 10%, at least 61% are. This means that, depending on where they settle down, married couples may feel right at home—or the odd ones out.”
Commenting on some of the unexpected findings, Burchfiel noted, “We also found that many affluent regions, such as parts of DC and Manhattan, have surprisingly low marriage rates. This suggests that differences in marriage aren’t simply a product of income: culture matters a great deal as well.”
About the Authors
Chris Bullivant
is a Senior Fellow of the Social Capital Campaign. He was formerly Director of Communications at the Institute for Family Studies, and previously established
the Social Capital Campaign, UK 2020 (a pro-Brexit think tank in London), and online commentary magazine UnHerd.
Ken Burchfiel
is a Family First Technology Initiative Research Fellow at the Institute for Family Studies. Before joining IFS, he served as a mental health counselor with Catholic Charities of Evansville and worked in a data analytics role at Seton Education Partners.
About IFS
The Institute for Family Studies is a non-partisan research organization dedicated to strengthening marriage and family life through evidence-based research and public education.
James Lynch
Institute for Family Studies
+1 917-748-8604
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