Growing up in Las Vegas doesn’t mean you’ll get married
Your hometown can have an affect on multiple aspects of your life, such as future income — and it can also have an affect on when or if you’ll get married. In Nevada, home of the “marriage capital of the world,” the numbers are lower than you might think.
Children who grow up in Clark County are only slightly more likely to be married by the age of 26 compared to a national average. For an easy comparison, children who grow up in Kane County, Utah — east of St. George — are 25 percent more likely to be married by the same age, according to The New York Times.
The data comes from a report by Harvard economists, where they believe they’ve identified a causal role in geography, as opposed to an observation of correlation. They studied more than five million people through the 1980s and 90s, and said the data provides evidence as to certain areas discouraging marriage — but they don’t exactly know why that is.
The researchers said similar trends continue through age 30.
A lot of this can be explained by the multiple reports saying millennials are putting off or altogether halting marriage, and for many children who grow up in Las Vegas, that may be the truth.
“My business is definitely down. I’m seeing a 50-percent drop just from last year,” Brit Bertino, a Las Vegas wedding planner and VP of Wedding Industry Professionals Association told Washington Post. The post also reported the number of marriage licenses issued in the city have dropped 40 percent in the last decade.
The top counties where marriage is more likely to be discouraged are almost all in the New York City area, as well as major cities like Washington D.C. and San Francisco. Children growing up in D.C. are more than 12-percent less likely to get married by age 26.
Here’s how Nevada’s counties stack up:
- White Pine County +8 percent more likely to get married
- Lander County +8 percent
- Churchill County +8 percent
- Nye County +7 percent
- Humboldt County +7 percent
- Elko County +7 percent
- Lyon County +5 percent
- Douglas County +2 percent
- Clark County +1 percent
- Washoe County +1 percent
- Lincoln County +0 percent
Contact Kristen DeSilva at 702-477-3895 or kdesilva@reviewjournal.com. Find her on Twitter: @kristendesilva
