In our (my) neighboring country Belgium they have statistics from as early as 1866. As it turns out, the number of divorces per 1,000 residents has increased from 0.01 in 1866 to 2.78 in 2006. In the Netherlands the situation is even ‘worse' (yes, the quotes are here on purpose, I'll explain later): in 1950 there were 3.9 divorces per 1,000 residents; in 2006 this figure has gone to 5.3

If it's any consolation: in both countries the number of divorces per 1,000 residents has stabilized and even show a decrease since approximately 2003.

So yes, in my society marriage has lost its importance, but this trend has been going on for decades already. Ever since the secularization started marriage has become less and less of a sacred institution. Note that Belgium is considered a catholic country, whereas the Netherlands used to be Calvinistic. Also note that the secularization rate in Belgium is not as high as in the Netherlands. I don't know about the American stats, but my guess is that your figures will be somewhat lower than ours too, considering that the US population is more religious by nature than the Dutch.

That all depends of course on your personal values and beliefs. In my opinion religious customs such as marriage have been designed to provide a social structure. Society needed stability and to provide that stability the religious leaders of their time devised marriage. Marriage was more or less a guarantee. The husband felt obliged to take care of the women, provide shelter and food and the two of them provided a safe environment for children to be born and grow up.

Now that modern society has other ways to provide social stability and women have become less depending on men in combination with less people being religious, marriage has lost part of its rationale. Here in the Netherlands you don't need to be married to be able to provide in your income. Personally I think this is a good thing. A relationship should not be based on dependence.

Nothing.

To me marriage is no more than the formal confirmation of a relationship. My ex wife and I didn't get married because marriage meant so much to us. At that time we thought we knew we were meant for each other and we didn't need to go to the town hall and get wed just to get that confirmed. My ex got pregnant (as intended) and it turned out that a lot things - both legally and fiscally - would be arranged for automatically when married. Had we not married I would have to make all kinds of arrangements, such as acknowledge my daughter, making a will, etc. I could easily avoid all that work by getting married. So we did. For practical reasons.

I'm not religious and I have a ‘problem' with institutions and traditions. I don't care about labels and titles. So I don't care about marriage.

I don't think two people are by default meant to be together for the rest of their lives. Being together is not an objective in my view, it's a consequence. To me, life is a path we all follow individually. And those paths cross at times. Sometimes they will be parallel. How long two paths will follow the same direction differs. And even if they go the same direction, one person may traverse this path faster than the other.

We all follow our own path. And if you find a traveling mate along the way, that's good. You can stimulate and learn from each other, share the views and experiences, grow together. If you happen to find a traveling mate who stays with you till the end of the journey; be grateful. But don't make the other or the other's path your goal. Follow your own path. Give to the people you meet along the way, share and be grateful for what they share with you.