不再关注离婚率 为何美国人再婚几率上升大纲

When it comes to love and marriage in the 21st century, if at first you don't succeed, there's time to try, try again.
当谈到21世纪的恋爱和婚姻时，如果第一次以失败告终，还有再尝试一次或者更多次的机会。

The vast majority of older Americans have married at least once by the time they reach age 50, Census data show. What's surprising is how many of them remarry: Roughly one in four people born between 1945 and 1954 have married two times or more by 50.
美国人口普查局(Census)的数据显示，大多数美国老年人在步入50岁时已经至少结过一次婚。令人惊讶的是其中有多少人再婚过：1945年至1954年期间出生的人中每四个人大概就有一个人到50岁时已经结过两次或者更多次婚了。

While exact numbers on second and third marriages are hard to come by, the share of Americans having them is significantly higher than it was before the 1960s, and has generally plateaued since then, according to W. Bradford Wilcox, a sociology professor at the University of Virginia who studies marriage trends.
弗吉尼亚大学(University of Virginia)研究婚姻趋势的社会学教授威尔科克斯(W. Bradford Wilcox)说，尽管难以得到有过两段和三段婚史的确切人数，但此类美国人的数量已经远远高于上世纪60年代前的水平，而且自那以来一直维持在高位。

Americans are waiting much longer to get married than they used to, thanks to factors ranging from women's improved educational opportunities to increased focus on careers to greater access to contraception. But this masks the fact that since people are living much longer than they did a century ago, they are actually marrying earlier in their overall lifetimes, leaving more time for a second or third round of wedding bells.
如今美国人首次结婚年龄比过去延后了许多，受到女性教育机会改善、人们更加注重事业和避孕方式更多等因素影响。但这掩盖了一个事实：由于人类寿命比一个世纪前更长了，如今人们首次结婚的年龄在一生中处在一个较以前更早的阶段，所以有更长时间来开始第二段或者第三段婚姻。

Today, the typical American man marries for the first time when he is 29 years old--well above the historical low of 23 in 1956, but only three years older than in 1890, according to Jonathan Vespa, a Census demographer. Women have a similar pattern.
美国人口普查局的人口学家韦斯帕(Jonathan Vespa)说，现在典型美国男性首次结婚的年龄是29岁，远高于1956年的历史低点23岁，但只比1890年高出三岁。女性情况也类似。

In 1890, however, a man's average life span was only 43 years--which means men were marrying for the first time about halfway through their lives. American men today live until about 76, so they are marrying in the first third of their lives.
但在1890年，男性的平均寿命只有43年，这意味着他们首次结婚的年龄大概是在一生中的中段。如今美国男性的平均寿命大约为76年，所以他们首次结婚的年龄是在一生中的第一个三分之一阶段。

Remarriage in the U.S. has dropped recently, partly because people are marrying later and more are choosing to live together without marrying. In 1990, 50 of every 1,000 divorced or widowed Americans remarried; this figure fell to 29 per 1,000 in 2011, says Mr. Wilcox, citing research by sociologist Susan Brown of Bowling Green State University.
近期美国再婚率有所下降，这在一定程度上是因为人们结婚的年龄推后了，而且有更多人选择同居而不是结婚。威尔科克斯援引鲍林格林大学(Bowling Green State University)社会学家布朗(Susan Brown)的研究结果称，1990年，每1,000名离婚或者丧偶的美国人中有50人再婚；现在这个数字下降至每1,000个这样的人中有29人再婚。

The divorce rate, which can be measured several ways, has been falling, though it remains above its early 1970s level. And some research shows Americans may be less happy about their marriages than they were in previous decades.
可以以多种方式衡量的离婚率一直在下降，但仍高于20世纪70年代初的水平。有研究显示，美国人对婚姻的幸福感可能不及之前几十年。Education also matters a lot for how people perceive and approach marriage: A growing number of American women without college degrees are having their first child before they get married--leading to less family stability, Mr. Wilcox says.
威尔科克斯称，教育程度也对人们如何认识和看待婚姻产生了重要影响：越来越多未接受过大学教育的美国女性未婚先孕，导致家庭稳定度下降。

Still, the fact that Americans have two-thirds of their lives to remarry may help people get out of failed relationships and find new ones that make them happy--a kind of 'churn' similar to the movements in and out of jobs in the labor market that help make the overall economy more dynamic.
不过美国人一生当中有三分之二的时间来选择再婚，这一事实或许有助于人们摆脱失败婚姻并找到新的幸福――这与就业市场中的人员流动相似，可以使整体经济更具活力。

Lynne and Chuck Tonini are among those having a better time the second time around.
琳内•托尼尼(Lynne Tonini)和查克•托尼尼(Chuck Tonini)就是在第二次婚姻中更加幸福的一对夫妻。

Mrs. Tonini, 45 years old, a business manager at an optometrist's office in Huntsville, Ala., first got married at age 23--a relationship that lasted 15 years and led to two children. Mr. Tonini's first marriage, which produced three children, lasted a similar amount of time, before going sour in the mid-2000s.
现年45岁的琳内是亚拉巴马州亨茨维尔一个验光师办公室的业务经理，她23岁时第一次结婚，这段婚姻维持了15年并育有两个孩子。查克的第一次婚姻带给他三个孩子，也持续了大约15年，在2005年前后结束。

After their breakups, Lynne met Chuck, now 39, and they became friends, then romantically involved. The couple waited five years before getting married in April 2013.
各自的婚姻失败后，琳内与现年39岁的查克相遇，他们成了朋友，然后相互爱恋。五年之后的2013年4月，他们步入婚姻的殿堂。

Mr. Tonini says he looked for different qualities this time around--things like self-sufficiency. 'When you get older, you look at things more maturely, and you want a more well-rounded person,' he says.
查克说，这次他希望妻子身上有一些不同的特质。他说，年龄大一些后，看待事情会更加成熟，也希望有一个更完美的伴侣。

The couple won't be celebrating Valentine's Day this Friday--they will be attending their 18-year-old son's high-school state championship wrestling tournament, which goes until about 10 p.m. But Mr. Tonini says he and wife have no problem waiting one more day. 'I might send her flowers,' he said. 'We'll make sure we celebrate.'
这对夫妻周五不会庆祝情人节，他们要参加18岁儿子所就读高中举办的全州摔跤锦标赛，比赛将持续到晚上10点左右。但查克说他和妻子不介意推迟一天再过节。他说：“我会送花给她，情人节肯定要过。”