Tikvah
Editors’ Pick

October 22, 2026

Why Young Americans Are Living Life Alone

Dating, marriage, and fertility are all in decline.

One of the most troubling, and hardest to understand, trends in the 21st-century West—one Mosaic has addressed from time to time—is the decline in birthrates. (Everywhere but Israel, of course.) But it’s not only birthrates that have shrunk. Young people today are less likely to marry, less likely to pair up outside of marriage, and in general more isolated than previous generations. In conversation with Jonah Goldberg, Daniel A. Cox delves into the web of technological, social, and religious changes that have brought this situation about. (Audio, 71 minutes.)

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