Red state heartlands put a ring on young love while progressive blue cities lag on early marriage

Young people looking to tie the knot in their 20s may want to rethink where they live. Moving to big coastal cities like New York and Los Angeles could mean lowering the odds of getting married — and living in an area with a high concentration of singles may not lead to more marriages.

According to a new study from the Institute for Family Studies (IFS), early-marriage rates are lower in many urban hubs and higher in parts of the heartland. The findings point to a geographical divide in family formation, with young adults in places like Tennessee, Indiana and Utah marrying at higher rates than their coastal big-city peers.

"For singles, your best odds of finding love and getting married aren’t in big coastal cities where most singles live, but in middle America, where more marriage‑minded singles are," Wendy Wang, Director of Research at the Institute for Family Studies, told Fox News Digital.

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The research is part of the IFS’s "Get Married Maps," which provides young people with information about regional marriage trends and examines factors associated with marriage rates. Those factors include employment, religion and recent presidential election results, among others.

"Given the many benefits of marriage, a city where more young people are tying the knot might ultimately provide a more fulfilling life than one with just excellent entertainment and tasty food—but few weddings," the study explains.

For adults ages 22-29, regions with the highest marriage rates include Provo, Utah, as well as parts of Tennessee, Indiana, Nebraska, Kentucky, Idaho, North Carolina, Kansas and Georgia. In contrast, eight of the 10 regions with the lowest early-marriage rates are concentrated in the New York and Los Angeles metropolitan areas.

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"These findings demonstrate that, for young adults, the ‘best place’ to get married may depend largely on when they hope to marry. Those who are committed to marrying in their twenties may want to think carefully about moving to a major coastal city; meanwhile, those same cities could be an excellent option—though not the only choice—for marriage-minded adults in their thirties," the study notes.

While coastal cities have lower marriage rates for 20-somethings, the picture changes for singles in their 30s. For adults ages 30 to 39, regions with the highest marriage rates include portions of the New York, San Jose, Los Angeles and Chicago metropolitan areas, along with suburbs in Texas and Indiana.

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Wang also explained that the research shows living in an area with a large population of single young people may not improve the odds of finding a future spouse.

"If you think your best chance of finding someone to marry is in the places with the most singles, think again," Wang told Fox News Digital. "The nation’s top 10 areas with the highest share of singles (more than 80% unmarried) are far from the places where most new marriages are happening."

The IFS research found that areas with more single men relative to single women tend to have higher female marriage rates, but the relationship is even stronger when researchers measure the ratio of full-time-employed single men to all single women.

Military-adjacent regions like Oceanside, California, and Fayetteville, North Carolina, as well as tech-heavy areas such as Mountain View and Sunnyvale, California, have some of the highest ratios of full-time-employed single men to single women.

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However, the link between male income and marriage rates varies by age. For women in their thirties, regions with a higher ratio of single men earning at least $60,000 a year had higher marriage rates. That financial link disappears for women in their 20s, suggesting younger couples place less emphasis on high salaries when deciding to tie the knot. 

Still, on an individual level, young men in their 20s who earn $60,000 or more are about twice as likely to marry as lower earners. 

"Single men’s jobs remain one of the strongest factors driving marriage in America," Wang added. 

Regional marriage rates for young adults in their 20s also showed a strong positive correlation with areas that backed Donald Trump over Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election. However, for adults in their 30s, this correlation flips and turns negative.

"One possible explanation is that more rural parts of the country, where Trump generally performed better than Harris, often have higher marriage rates for adults in their twenties," the study notes.

The researchers noted that their findings show broad regional patterns, not proof that a particular location or political environment causes people to marry.

The study measures where respondents currently live, not necessarily where they met their spouses or lived when they got married. The researchers also acknowledged that some people may have moved after marrying, potentially affecting the marriage rates of certain regions.