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It happens around the age of 30 to almost half of Australians. That moment when, for the first time in their lives, those who have never married are no longer the majority of people their age. For women in Australia, that age is 29; for men, it's 32, according to figures from the 2011 census. Across both genders, the share who have never married drops from 55 per cent to 45 percent between the ages of 29 and 31. It's a demographic milestone that can leave some people feeling like everyone got married overnight and they somehow missed the memo, while others barely notice. "I do think it depends on your social circles," said communications consultant Lauren Robertson, 30. "For example, one of my friends, who is single and 33, has a huge friendship group of about 30 people … When they were all around 27-28 pretty much everyone in her group got married. "She was then the only single woman and, predictably, once they all started having kids, it became more and more difficult to maintain friendships because they were interested in different things and at different life stages." Ms Robertson's social circle are about the same age but haven't gone down that road – yet. "Only about a quarter of my women friends are married," she said. "I think surrounding myself with like-minded people has meant I haven't felt the same pressure that I know some women feel around getting married by a certain age." For women, the ranks of the married swell fastest in their late twenties. Less than a quarter of 25-year-olds are married, compared with half of 30-year-olds. Men tend to stay unmarried for longer. A 25-year-old bloke, for example, is half as likely to be married as a 25-year-old woman. Once it begins, however, the increase for men is almost as rapid, jumping from about a quarter of 27-year-olds to more than half of 33-year-olds. When will unmarried people be the majority again? University of Melbourne sociologist Belinda Hewitt said that Australians are now experiencing the "oh god, everyone around me is married" moment about five years later than the previous generation. "Before the 1980s, most people were married by 25 and if you weren't married by then, you were considered to be a spinster – especially if you were a woman," Associate Professor Hewitt said. A steep increase in the number of women attending university and joining the workforce, and shifting attitudes to women's role in society led to more people waiting longer to marry. The rise of co-habitation (unmarried couples living together) has also contributed to more couples marrying later in life, she said. However, the tide might be turning. "Younger people now are becoming more conservative. They want to get married and have children younger, and I think that's driven by this trend of women getting into their late-30s and finding it's more difficult to have children," Associate Professor Hewitt said. But for now, the days of the married majority are numbered. Unmarried women in their 30s who feel like they've woken up to a brave new world dominated by couples in marital bliss, rest assured your time will come again: in about 45 years. At age 76, unmarried women reclaim the majority position, although this time mostly as widowers. For men, the wait is tougher. Unmarried men in their 30s have to make it to the ripe old age of 91 before they are again the majority for people their age - which could be challenging given life expectancy for men is 80 years. The end of the seven-year itch ​The rise of the married majority slows after the age of 40 as the share of Australians who are separated or divorced reaches its zenith. It peaks at nearly one in four women at age 53 and one in five men at age 56, census figures show. However, rates of divorce in Australia are declining and even those who do divorce are staying married longer the latest Bureau of Statistics research shows. Between 1995 and 2015, the divorce rate fell from 2.8 to 2.0 divorces granted per 1000 Australian residents, according to the figures released in November 2016. And the seven-year itch – or more precisely for Australia, the 7.4 year itch, which was the number of years between marriage and separation in 1987 – has become an 8.5-year itch. "Marriages are actually more successful now … because a lot of the unstable relationships are getting sorted out in co-habitation," Associate Professor Hewitt said. "People are getting married older and they're living together before they get married, so when people get married now their relationships are more solid. "You're not seeing many really early, really young marriages where neither of you really knows who you are or what you want." In 2015 more than 80 per cent of couples lived together before marriage, up from 25 per cent in 1977, ABS figures show. Overall, this has been healthy for Australian marriages. But it wasn't always that way. Changing how we live ... and think In the 1970s and early 1980s, couples who lived together before marriage had a higher risk of divorce, Associate Professor Hewitt said. But that changed in the late 1980s when the percentage of couples co-habiting before marriage climbed past the 50 per cent mark. "Once the share tipped over into the majority, the probability of divorce declined and now it's about the same as for couples who don't co-habit," she said. The turnaround reflects how powerfully cultural norms and social acceptance affect our relationships, with relationships that don't conform often being harder to maintain. But changes in behaviour and attitude go hand-in-hand. "So it [the probability of divorce] changed once co-habitation prior to marriage became 'normal'," Associate Professor Hewitt said. Ms Robertson says she might want to marry one day but "it's never going to be one of my goals". "In popular culture, single women are often portrayed as these sad, lonely, powerless individuals," she said. "In reality, from my experience of being single throughout my 20s and having a lot of single friends, single women are the opposite of that. Being single forces to discover who you are, be independent and create the life that you want to live."

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