Counting Marriages in the United States: The Value of County-Level Administrative Data

Rapid family change has occurred in the United States, but it has not been accurately charted at the local level. Our capacity to understand spatial variation in marriage is hindered by the deterioration and defunding of the U.S. marriage and divorce vital statistics system. While there is easily accessible state-level data, there is no central depository of county-level administrative marriage data preventing researchers from addressing questions about the geographic concentration as well as variation in marriage rates. We compiled 2010 county-level administrative marriage data from over 3000 counties in 49 states. We find there is wide variation in marriage rates within states with marriage rates varying more across states than within states. While the American Community Survey (ACS) is often used to study marriage rates in the U.S., we find that ACS data can only be used to assess local marriage rates for less than one in ten counties. Our findings demonstrate the high level of spatial variation in marriage and the significance of relying on county- rather than state-level marriage rates.