American Notes WOMEN

That now infamous 1986 Yale-Harvard study, the one giving college-educated single women over 30 a 1-in-5 chance of ever marrying, has taken a beating. A report released last week by the Census Bureau reckons that fully two-thirds of the 30-plus college cohort will eventually marry. When these single college graduates pass 40, according to Census Researcher Jeanne E. Moorman, 17% to 23% will tie the knot; the Yale-Harvard study predicted a minuscule 1.3% marriage rate.

Moorman criticizes the earlier report for assuming that a woman who has not married within a narrow band of years has dealt herself out of the matrimonial pool. College women, she says, "are spreading out their marriages over a longer period."