Over Half of Spouses in Same-Sex Marriages Tied the Knot After 2014

By distinguishing between male-male and female-female married couples, the report also examines whether characteristics of spouses in same-sex marriages are similar for men and women.

How spouses in opposite- and same-sex marriages compared in 2022:

• Among all spouses — regardless of when they married — those in same-sex marriages (46%) were more likely than those in opposite-sex marriages (34%) to be younger than 45. The opposite was true among spouses who married after 2015: 78% of those in opposite-sex marriages were younger than 45 vs. 65% of those in same-sex marriages.
• Out of all spouses, men in opposite-sex marriages (71%) were more likely to be in the labor force and employed than women in opposite-sex marriages (58%). Among same-sex married couples, the percentage of men (74%) and women (75%) who were employed did not significantly differ.
• Children under 18 were more com­mon in opposite-sex married-couple households. About 38% of these households included a child of the householder, compared to 18% of same-sex married-couple households.
• Among households with children, same-sex married-couple households were more likely to have only adopted (21%) or only foster (2%) children of the householder present than opposite-sex married couple households (2% and 0.2% respectively).
• Living in an apartment was twice as common for same-sex married-couple households, consistent with the higher propor­tion of same-sex married-couple households in urban areas.