The American marriage rate fell to its lowest on record in 2018, figures released Wednesday showed. The U.S. marriage rate fell 6 percent in 2018, with just 6.5 new unions formed for every 1,000 people, according to a report by the National Center for Health Statistics, the lowest rate since records began in 1867. Marriage rates plunged near the start of the Great Depression in the 1930s, then rebounded sharply after World War II, hitting a high of 16.4 marriages per 1,000 people in 1946. The marriage rate began a near-steady decline in 1982 that lasted until 2009, then remained near flat before inching upward in 2014.