You may have heard the recent news from the Census Bureau that as of 2005, and for the first time in recorded history, more than half of all adult women are living without a spouse. There are plenty of implications that arise from this latest finding, but as the New York Times points out, contrary to popular perception, this so-called “marriage gap” isn’t about gender, but instead, it’s about education and social class -- women with lower socioeconomic attainment are less likely to marry than women with higher socioeconomic attainment:

Statistics show that college educated women are more likely to marry than non-college educated women — although they marry, on average, two years later. . . . Women with more education also are becoming less likely to divorce, or inclined to divorce, than those with less education. They are even less likely to be widowed all in all, less likely to end up alone. . . .

The difference extends across race lines: black women are significantly less likely to marry than white women, but among blacks, women with a college education are more likely to marry than those who do not.

Among women ages 25-34, 59 percent of college graduates are married, compared with 51 percent of non-college graduates, according to an analysis of the Census Bureau’s June 2006 Current Population Survey by Steven P. Martin, a sociologist at the University of Maryland. The same is true at older age groups: the difference is 75 percent to 62 percent for those ages 35-44, and 50 percent to 41 percent among those 65 and older.

The article points out that the statistical pattern with men is rather similar as well -- the more educated a man is, the more likely he is to be married and that this trend increases with age. Many people might find these numbers a little surprising because the general perception tends to be -- fueled by media portrayals as well -- that “higher class” women are more likely to be independent and never-married while “lower class” women are more likely to follow the traditional path of marriage no matter what.

But as the data show, the exact opposite is true. Ultimately, what we have here is a finding which says that financial security brings marital stability and that both lead to greater happiness.