The big crisis facing America - decline in marriage rates.

While people look at declines in educational performance, rise in crime and poverty rates, high unemployment, and growing welfare roles as critical problems facing America, the one which supercedes all of them is the decline in marriage rates and a rise in cohabitation.

Why is this?  Because marriage and family undergirds all of society.  The way marriage and family goes, is the way society goes.  We won't get a handle on these other problems until we get a handle on the marriage problem.

The marriage rate is at its lowest point in more than a century, and the number of marriages across the USA fell more than 5% during the recession. But a new analysis projects that pent-up demand and the large population of marriage-eligible Millennials, ages 18-34, means more will be headed to the altar over the next two years.

Cultural changes about whether and when to marry, the fact that two-thirds of first marriages are preceded by cohabitation and the recession's financial fallout — including unemployment and underemployment — fueled the wedding decline. Projections from the private company Demographic Intelligence of Charlottesville, Va., says the signs are right for a temporary boost in weddings.

The company projects a 4% increase in the number of weddings since 2009, reaching 2.168 million this year; 2.189 million in 2014. Depending on the economic recovery, the report projects a continuing increase to 2.208 million in 2015.

Although it finds marriage numbers are stagnant or declining among those with a high school education or less, younger Americans, and the less affluent, numbers are rising among women ages 25-34, the college-educated and the affluent, which is where "short-term increases in weddings will be concentrated," says this analysis, released exclusively to USA TODAY. It's based on a variety of measures, including unemployment and consumer confidence, which reflect the relationship between financial security and the transition to marriage.

"Declines in weddings are likely to set in towards the end of the decade, even though the number of young adults is increasing, because of the nation's ongoing retreat from marriage," the report notes.

Cohabitation is also a huge problem.  The number of couples cohabiting has doubled in the last ten years.  Why a problem?  It makes it harder for people to bond with a future partner for life.  And most cohabiting couples don't stay together.  Some say, cohabitation is like "test driving" a prospective partner.  The problem is marriage isn't like buying a car.  People need to commit to one another before having sex.  Why does it work this way?  Simple.  That's the way God designed it to work.