Recently people have been postponing marriage until they are older, which reflects a decision by young people to live independently as they pursue higher education or job opportunities. In the decade of the 1970s there was a sharp increase in those who have never married. In 1970 one out of every ten women age 25 to 29 had never married. By 1980 this proportion had doubled to one in five. For men it was one in five in 1970 and one in three in 1980. Like marriage rates, birthrates fluctuate with wars, socioeconomic conditions, and other variables, as was evident in the "baby boom" following World War II. By about 1900 the birthrate was more than 30 per 1,000 population, decreasing to 19.4 in 1940, and increasing to 25 by the mid-1950s. .
Modern American society of the end of the millennium is gradually changing its customs concerning family models. A regular nuclear family is not the model to look up to any more. There are astonishingly a lot of childless and single parent families. This fact is strictly connected with the economic situation and tendencies in the United States. The American culture is deeply rooted in the Puritan idea of performing hard work. They believed that they had been chosen by God to rest in the canopies of heaven with Him. However, before anything of this kind could happen, they had to distinguish themselves by hard and honest work. If they appeared to be successful, it meant that God was on their side. This attitude became an inseparable element of the society they have grown into. Nowadays the "obsession" with work has come to the point where lots of parents claim that they have no time for their kids, no time to sleep, read, cook, exercise, socialize - in short, no time to live! Their children do have biological parents, but physically they hardly even meet them. In the family where both parents work kids are usually left for themselves. This fact contributes to a number of juvenile delinquency and addiction-related problems.