Always a bridesmaid: People who don't expect to marry - ARCHIVED

Research consistently shows that delaying marriage tends to increase the likelihood that a person will never marry. After age 30, a single person may not wish to marry; it may seem less feasible or less desirable than it did when they were younger.

This article looks at "mature singles," that is, men and women older than the average age at which people first marry (28 for women, 30 for men) but not yet past prime working-age (under 55). These men and women numbered over 1.1 million in 2001; they had never legally married and were not living common-law at the time of the survey. More than half a million of them did not think they would ever get married. The article examines some of the differences between those mature singles who do not expect to marry and those who do.