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First-time marriages rise in 40s and 50s demographics: Study

Yahoo Finance Live hosts examine the trends surrounding the rise in first-time marriages amid middle-aged people.

Video transcript

DAVE BRIGGS: All right, generally speaking, we're all in a hurry to do just about everything these days, except for one very important thing-- get married. First-time marriages for people in their 40s and 50s are on the rise, according to a study published in the "Journal of Marriage and Family." Look at those numbers.

First-time marriages in midlife up 74% for women and 45% even for men. Presumably-- now, they don't go into reasoning-- but this is about women being more career focused, less in a hurry to have children, and because, frankly, Seana, it's a lot more expensive to have children these days. So it all comes back to the economy and business.

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SEANA SMITH: It is very expensive, especially when you're heading into a potential downturn question of how deep this recession might be if we, in fact, do see a recession. It will be interesting to see how these marriage numbers are affected by that. But when you take a look at why people are postponing their marriage, you mentioned career.

And I think that is a big part of this because there have been a number of studies that have shown if women, in particular, delay marriage, they are more likely to earn more in their early years in terms of their career. So I think economically speaking, Rachelle, it makes a lot of sense, especially in the environment that we have been in over the last 10 to 12 years since the Great Recession. I think people are a little bit nervous to do anything that could potentially disrupt their earnings.

RACHELLE AKUFFO: And when you think of the age that this is happening at, this is when people are really hitting their economic stride. They're not necessarily trying to make their way up the corporate ladder. They're more established at this point.

So that's that time to sort of take stock and see, perhaps, who's a good match for you, not just romantically. We're seeing that one of the reasons people delayed getting married with some of this disillusionment about what they think about relationships, where if you have a better sense of who you are financially and perhaps emotionally as well that make it perhaps a better option for people.

DAVE BRIGGS: It'd be interesting to see down the road how this impacts the labor market. Presumably, this leads to a smaller population, fewer children. We do need more workers. I mean, Elon Musk is making up for a lot of us.

SEANA SMITH: Yes.

DAVE BRIGGS: But still, fewer children should impact the labor market. And not everyone's Hilary Swank that's 48, pregnant with twins.

SEANA SMITH: That's impressive.

DAVE BRIGGS: So, again, presumably, much fewer than Elon.

SEANA SMITH: Let's see.

DAVE BRIGGS: Stuck on Elon.

SEANA SMITH: We're all doing our part. We're OK.

RACHELLE AKUFFO: There you go, doing their part, so we don't have to.