Marital status has become a proxy for political beliefs, cutting across other factors in party affiliation including age, gender and class.
Republicans are more likely than Democrats to be married, at 65% compared to 50%, according to a new research brief from the Institute for Family Studies. The trend has grown stronger since 2000, when there was roughly only a 10-percentage-point gap, despite a decline in marriage for members of both parties. Further, the majority of married adults report being “very happily” married, but Republicans have an 11-point advantage, at 65% compared to 54%.
