RACIAL AND ETHNIC-DIFFERENCES IN THE DESIRE TO MARRY

Questionnaire data from over 2, 000 respondents in the National Survey of Families and Households are used to explore racial, ethnic, and gender differences in the expressed desire to marry. Black men and women are significantly less desiring of marriage than their white counterparts, but the racial difference among men is significantly larger than the racial difference among women. Compared to nonhispanic whites of the same gender, Hispanic men are more likely, and Hispanic women less likely, to desire to marry. Racial and ethnic differences among women are attributable primarily to differences in educational attainment, while differences between black and white men stem from differences in the anticipated benefits of marriage.