Around the world, young couples are marrying and having children later than their parents did, and the main reason is not fading romance. It is an unresolved housing question. The OECD (the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, a group of 38 mostly wealthy countries that compares their economic and social data) tracked the total fertility rate, the average number of children a woman has over her lifetime, falling from 3.3 in 1960 to 1.5 in 2022 across member countries in its Society at a Glance 2024 report. The OECD names rising housing costs as one of the significant drivers.
The exact numbers differ by region, but the direction is the same almost everywhere.
What this looks like across countries
In Russia, the average bride's age climbed from 30.7 in 2021 to 33.1 in 2025, and the groom's from 32.8 to 35.2, according to RBC, citing the country's civil registry data. Almost three years in under five. A Russian public-opinion survey (VTsIOM) found that 37% of Russians name housing as one of the biggest problems facing young people, second only to employment at 39%, up from 23% back in 1991. A joint study with Russia's state housing agency DOM.RF found that 28% of Russians aged 18-35 live with their parents, 27% rent, and only 43% own their home.
The pattern looks similar in the United States. Johns Hopkins University's Population Center reports that young Americans are increasingly delaying both marriage and childbearing, prioritizing financial stability, steady work and a place of their own, over the traditional markers of adulthood.
A more targeted study published in 2025 in the peer-reviewed European Journal of Population (peer-reviewed means independent scientists checked the work for errors before it was published, unlike a blog post or a news story) (van Wijk and Feijten) dug into this using European data on homeowners versus renters. The finding: rising house prices widen the fertility gap between people who already own their home and people who rent, with renters seeing a sharper fertility decline. This is an observational study, meaning it shows a correlation rather than proving a strict cause-and-effect chain, but it lines up with the broader pattern across OECD countries.
Asia shows the same link, just sharper. According to China's Ministry of Civil Affairs and National Bureau of Statistics, the average age at first marriage rose from 24.9 in 2010 to 28.7 in 2020, reaching 30.1 in Shanghai by 2024. In major Chinese cities, the ratio of housing prices to annual income often exceeds 20, meaning a young professional could need more than 20 years of salary, with no gaps, just to afford an apartment.
What this looks like in practice
Picture a couple who wants to move in together, almost anywhere in the world. Rent eats half of one partner's paycheck, so saving for a down payment barely moves. Parents help, but not forever. A mortgage eventually gets approved, but the payment stretches across 20 to 25 years and swallows most of the household income. The wedding, and any child, gets pushed back, not because the couple does not want either, but because the square footage has to get sorted first.
The compounding effect nobody talks about
There is a second, quieter cost. While a couple sorts out housing, time keeps moving. The biological and financial window for having more than one child is not infinite for most people. The longer the first child gets delayed, the less time and energy is left for a second or third, even once housing eventually falls into place.
What you can actually do about it
Waiting for policy to fix the housing market can take years you do not have. It helps more to plan the budget honestly, separate from the romantic timeline you assumed you would follow:
- Look past the monthly mortgage payment to the share of income it will consume for years to come. If it is above 40-50%, the risk is too high.
- Talk about money and housing with your partner before the wedding decision, not after. Unspoken assumptions on this topic break couples more often than the lack of money itself does.
- Treat regional and family support programs, subsidized mortgages, government grants, rent assistance, whatever form they take locally, as tools, not the only path. Sometimes moving to a city with lower housing costs is more honest than years of waiting.
- Do not postpone starting a family until conditions feel perfect. The system does not produce perfect conditions for anyone, anywhere. Every real decision gets made under some amount of uncertainty.
A few extra years before the average wedding, showing up worldwide, is not a story about a generation that stopped valuing commitment. It is a story about square footage costing more than the years spent chasing it.
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