Photo by andertho.

Technically, marriage rates are down all over the country, but how could we not use this headline?

Anyhow, the Post writes today that a Pew Research Center reports has found that marriage rates across the U.S. are hovering at the 50 percent mark, a drop from the 57 percent of couples that took the plunge in 2000. Locally, the Post writes:

Maryland is a little below the national average, at 50 percent, while Virginia is a little higher, at 54 percent, and both are declining. But in the District, which experienced an influx of young adults over the past decade, only one in four adults is married while more than half have never wed.

The national drop is attributed the a number of factors — younger generations see marriage as passé, and the bum economy hasn’t helped matters any. For the District, professional ambitions may have something to do with it too.

The number of marriage licenses in the District doubled from 2010 to 2011, but that dramatic increase was largely attributed to same-sex couples that were not able to get married before the District changed its laws to allow it. But even the same-sex marriage boom has its limits, it seems — the predicted business benefits have been more modest than originally assumed.