Thankfully, this is exactly what it looks like’s happening. Regarding out of wedlock births, a new report from the National Center for Health Statistics finds the following:

Steepest Decline Since 1940: Unmarried child-bearing has declined at its steepest and most sustained rate since 1940 over the last few years, both in terms of rate and real numbers. The rate declined 14 percent from its all-time high in 2008.

Cohabiting Births Now Majority: Increasingly, unmarried births are taking place in cohabiting relationships, 58 percent of all out-of-wedlock births today, up from 41 percent in 2002. These are also increasingly intended pregnancies, by 20 percent in 2002 to 29 percent in 2010.

Increases for Ages 35+: Age-wise, non-marital births have declined since 2007 for all women up to age 35, but have increased for those over 35. Specifically…

1. Declined 30 percent for ages 15-17 and 26 percent for ages 18-19.

2. For 20-24 year-olds declined by 19 percent and 13 percent for those aged 25-29.

3. However, they’ve risen 7 percent for women aged 35-39 and a remarkable 29 percent among 40-44 year-olds. (A theory for this curious outlier is presented in the conclusion below.)

Declines for All Races: Race-wise, declines are seen in all groups since 2007.

1. Hispanic women had the highest levels in 2007, but the greatest decline today at 28 percent.

2. Black women had an 11 percent decline.

3. Non-Hispanic White women had a 6 percent decline.

4. Asian and Pacific Islanders have always had the lowest levels in general, having a very minimal recent decline.

In terms of percentage of non-marital births to all births, that number has stayed largely the same at 40.6 percent in 2013 from 41 percent in 2009. (NOTE: This particular number remains unchanged – while all the others have changed dramatically – because it is a percentage of all births, which have been declining faster than non-marital births have.)

Is “The Man Problem” at work here?

No one really knows the reason for this positive turn. But the sharp and continued increase of these births among cohabiting women and those in their later 30s and 40s is very curious.

I believe it has much to do with the difficulty women are having finding marriageable men today. If they cannot find men who they feel good about marrying, they will simply settle for living with them and getting a baby from them as they feel their biological clocks ticking down in these later ages.

And this is exactly what we are seeing in increasing numbers.

This article was originally posted at the GlennStanton.com webstie.