Stability’s significant comeback, blame Hamas for Gaza hunger and other commentary
July 30, 2025
Family watch: Stability’s Significant Comeback
With an eye on “the benefits of marriage to men, women, children and civilization itself,” The Wall Street Journal’s James Freeman cheers the apparent end of “the long, sad decline of the family.” Sociologist Brad Wilcox reports: “Divorce is down and the share of children in two-parent families is up” — and “nonmarital childbearing, after almost half a century of increase, stalled out in 2009” at 41%, dropping to about 40% “a few years later, where it has remained. For children, less divorce and a small decline in childbearing outside wedlock mean more stability.” Some of these shifts are modest, notes Freeman, “so let’s hope that this is just the start of a big swing of the cultural pendulum toward thriving, stable households.”
