Around Valentine’s Day, love is certainly in the air. Society would surely benefit if marriage was in the atmosphere too. Compelling data shows that strong families, which include married parents, make for safer communities and a more robust economy.
A report by the Home Economics Project, a research effort of the American Enterprise Institute and the Institute for Family Studies, explored whether and how strong and stable families advance the economic welfare of children, adults and the nation as a whole. They found that states that have strong and stable families, especially as measured by the share of families headed by married parents, are more likely to show high levels of growth, economic mobility and median family income. They also tend to have lower levels of child poverty.
Violent crime is much less common in the states with larger shares of families headed by married parents, even after controlling for a range of socio-demographic factors at the state level. The violent crime rate (violent crimes per 100,000 people) sits at 343 on average for states in the top quintile of married parenthood, whereas those in the bottom quintile average a rate of 563.
