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CNA Staff, Feb 18, 2025 / 17:45 pm (CNA).
A recently released report highlights which states have the strongest family structures, linking societal problems such as violence, child poverty, and poor educational outcomes to broken family units.
The Family Structure Index and the Hope and a Future Report — published by the Center for Christian Virtue (CCV), a public policy group based in Ohio — ranked Utah, Idaho, and Nebraska in the top three, with New York, New Mexico, and Rhode Island at the bottom.
The report examined the percentage of adults who are married, have children, and raise them together through their children’s high school years.
In the top-ranking state of Utah, 68% of “prime-aged” adults (ages 25 to 54) were married. The average number of lifetime births per woman was 1.85, while 60% of teenagers were “raised intact,” meaning the teenagers are living with their married parents.
The state of Colorado was at the halfway point — ranked 25th — with 58.8% of prime-aged adults married, a birth rate of 1.49, and 54.4% of teens raised intact. The lowest-ranked state of Rhode Island had a 50.8% marriage rate, a 1.4 fertility rate, and 47.3% of teens raised with married parents.
29th-ranked Ohio under the microscope
The CCV released a report alongside the issue highlighting ways to improve family structures in the CCV’s home state of Ohio, which ranked 29th in the Family Structure Index.
The report linked rising child poverty, violence, and poor academic outcomes to a decrease in marriage in Ohio.
“At the root of what is hurting our communities is broken families,” said CCV president Aaron Baer. “The Hope and a Future report reveals some devastating realities about the challenges our children face but also provides real solutions about righting the course in Ohio and America.”
The report called on the Ohio state government to eliminate “marriage penalties” built into taxes or state programs and reduce obstacles to marriage. The report also emphasized supporting youth, given that “if students graduate high school, get a job, and get married before having kids, it is nearly impossible to live in poverty,” the report noted, citing research from the Brookings Institute.
CCV’s report also advocated for churches to expand their marriage and family ministries, celebrate marriage, and preach “an inspiring vision of marriage where the beauty, goodness, power, and difficulties of marriage and family life can be shared in age-appropriate ways to the entire congregation.”
Brad Wilcox, professor of sociology at the University of Virginia, who authored the report with the Institute for Family Studies, noted that “one of the biggest, unheralded forces ‘dispelling’ the American dream is the falling fortunes of the American family.”
“Right now, the American dream is out of reach for too many men, women, and children across Ohio,” Wilcox said in a statement. “One key to saving the dream in Ohio is to strengthen and stabilize family life across the state. This is especially important because Ohio ranks 29th on the new Family Structure Index from CCV and the Institute for Family Studies (IFS).”
The report is designed to address those falling fortunes — from drug problems to alcoholism and suicide, Wilcox noted in a post for the Institute for Family Studies.
Wilcox noted that the report showed “how closely the fortunes of Ohio families are tied to educational success, poverty, and the emotional well-being of children across the state.”
The recommended public policies and civic actions, Wilcox noted, are designed to help Ohioans.
“[W]e want every Ohioan — men, women, and especially children — to have a shot at the “better, richer, and happier life” that the American dream offers,” Wilcox said.
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