A record share of men are "marrying up" educationally

The pattern of the husband “marrying up” educationally is more pronounced among newlyweds. In 2015, 32 percent of newlywed women married a spouse whose education level was lower than theirs. In contrast, 20 percent of newlywed men married a spouse with less education.

With the rising share of couples in which one partner has more education than the other, the share who have similar education levels has been falling. In 1960, 78 percent of couples were in this group, but by 2015, the share had dropped to a record low of 50 percent. The primary reason for the decline is that marriages between spouses with high school or less education are much less common today, declining from 74 percent of all marriages in 1960 to only 23 percent in 2015.

At the other end of the education spectrum, marriages between college-educated Americans are on the rise.