Just another sign of the moral decay of society:

Married couples dip below half of Milwaukee family households

Georgia Pabst

Number dips to 49.5% of family units in Milwaukee for first time in census

By Georgia Pabst and Ben Poston of the Journal Sentinel

May 11, 2011

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Wendy Beiersdorf, 32, has a 4-year-old daughter and considers herself a single parent. Although she and her daughter's father live together, they have never married.
Her boyfriend helps out with bills and cares for their child, but for financial and other reasons, they have no immediate plans to marry.
Ileana Claudio, 27, is also a single mom with a 4-year-old son. She married at 23 and later divorced. People have high expectations for marriage, she says. "And I was young."
The two women represent the new look of family households in the city of Milwaukee.
For the first time, less than half - 49.5% - of family households in Milwaukee are occupied by a married couple, U.S. Census Bureau figures released Thursday show. That has dropped from 55% of households in 2000, and 62% in 1990.
The number of female householders with no husband present outnumbered their male counterparts almost 4-to-1 last year.
The census figures also show that the city's median age skewed a bit younger, from 30.6 years in 2000 to 30.3 last year. But statewide, Wisconsin's population got older, moving from a median age of 36 in 2000 to 38.5 last year. Milwaukee's suburbs also showed they're aging.
And because of the economic and foreclosure crisis, vacant housing units in the city now stand at 9.9%, compared with 6.8% in 2000 and 5.4% in 1990. Statewide, vacant units were also up, from 10.2% in 2000 to 13.1% last year.
More people are renting in Milwaukee, too.
The number of renter-occupied housing units increased by nearly two percentage points, from 54.7% in 2000 to 56.4% last year. In 1990, the percentage of renter-occupied housing units was 55.2%.

Female heads a trend

The increasing number of family households headed by a single woman are part of a trend that's fairly typical for developed countries around the world where people either don't value marriage or are postponing it until they're better off financially, said Roberta Coles, the chair of the social and cultural sciences department at Marquette University.
"In the 1950s people could support a family with a high school education, but that's no longer viable," Coles said. College is not paid for and is getting more expensive, so people are waiting longer on average to get married, she said.
"The general trend for everyone is to postpone, and that's more true for African-Americans, though less true for Hispanic-Americans, although that will probably change as the immigrant population assimilates," Coles said.
Although couples may not marry, cohabitation is generally up because, although marriage may be postponed, the relationship is not, she said.
"The definition of family is much more fluid as to how we should take care of people not legally ours."
With high concentrations of poverty in Milwaukee, poor people are less likely to marry, will have a higher divorce rate and a higher cohabitation rate, she said.

Getting parents involved

At Journey House on the city's south side, where both Beiersdorf and Claudio are studying for their GEDs, the agency works with parents - many single parents - who suffer from a lack of education, poverty and a lot of stress, especially in these times, said Michele Bria, chief executive officer. "These adult learners are very motivated to learn and to be examples for their children."
The large increases in both the number of single-parent households and households living in poverty has had an impact on the academic achievement of kids in schools, said Tom Schneider, executive director of COA Youth and Family Centers.
That's why the agency works to support parents to become more involved in their children's education, so children can succeed academically, he said.
Coles believes the lower marriage rate will continue because of the poor economy.
"People may postpone marriage a little longer, but they may also postpone divorce a little longer, too," she says. "Because in a shaky economy, people may divorce but continue to live together."