A new data analysis at Pew Research Center shows that in 2019, 81 percent of people who are the head of their households and have a degree, also had a spouse who was a college graduate. This comes as a surprise, as a different study from Pew Research in 2019 found that only 53 percent of total adults are married.

The data analysis also shows that adults whose parents also graduated college are even more likely to get married, as that number jumps to 86 percent if they had one parent who had also graduated college. The amount drops to a smaller percentage at 73 percent for first generation college graduates, but still astonishing numbers, that consider these college graduates tend to stick together. Nearly 52 percent of these first-generation college graduates are also married to another college graduate that’s first generation, as a lot of these people who have made breakthroughs inside of their own families tend to stick together as well.

This study tends to reflect the schools that some first-generation students attend, which tend to be more public and financial aid based, while the ones who come from parents with bachelor degrees tend to go to more private institutions.

This makes sense to some, as college graduate Ambrose Ronson said “its very expensive to start a life together, so people with the parents who can afford more tend to stick together.”

Ronson then said “my mom and dad bought a house for 50-60k in the 90s, and the same house is now worth 800k, so for these reasons people look for someone with a similar education, and a similar pay grade.”

These reasons make sense as to why more college graduates look to get married to each other, because they need someone in the same social class as them to help pay to be able to get affordable living.

Another reason college graduates tend to be married to each other more, is because people who haven’t graduated, and don’t have as higher paying jobs, tend to not believe in marriage, studies show. Retail worker Tyler Huff, who did not go to college, said he believes marriage is a “scam” and that its too expensive for him to afford, as he’d rather be in a long term relationship without doing it. Huff said  “Weddings are too expensive, and you don’t even know if it’ll last, so what’s the point of even risking it.” Huff also said it’s harder to pay for more things, and it takes a toll on people if it doesn’t work out. This is without a doubt a reason why college graduates can stick together for marriage, as it may be hard to afford for someone who did not graduate.

The study also notes other things that being a second generation graduate has, like the likelihood increasing to get an advanced degree if you’re a second generation college graduate, and the likelihood of those people marrying being even more as well. At the end of the day, college graduates are getting married at a way more rapid rate than anyone else, showing a gap in how expensive and how hard to sustain marriage is becoming these days