Gen Z: Postpone, Don’t Foreclose

Highly educated members of Gen Z are delaying marriage rather than rejecting it, so current low marriage rates for young adults reflect timing effects as cohorts age. That delay interacts with higher education enrollment, later household formation, and short‑run fertility timing, producing alarmist press narratives that mistake delay for permanent decline. — Understanding delay versus decline changes policy priorities — from panic about family collapse to planning for later childbearing, housing demand shifts, and support for young‑adult household formation.