Millennials certainly can't be blamed for rushing into marriage. The number of young people tying the knot lags all other generations, says a report from the Urban Institute.

Young adults are on track to have the lowest rates of marriage by age 40 compared to any previous generation, CNN Money says the report shows.

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If millennials keep to current trends, over 30 percent of females will turn 40 as single women. That's nearly double the share of Gen X counterparts who were single at that age.

In 1960, 59 percent of adults between ages 18 and 29 were married. Today, the marriage rate among that age group has dropped to 20 percent.

Overall, only about 26 percent of all millennials, described as those born after 1982, are married, says Forbes.

Attitudes about marriage have changed. Past generations tended to get hitched young and build futures together, explained Neil Howe, an economist and author of books about millennials.

Now, people commonly feel they need to be more established, especially financially, before they walk down the aisle, he told CNN Money.

Given those attitudes, it's little wonder that marriage rates declined drastically during the Great Recession when millennials struggled to find work and many relied on unemployment as a lifeline.

In many cases, young men are unable to play the traditional role of breadwinners. Young women often have better jobs and earn more money. That can make women more likely to view marriage and the attendant risk of divorce as costly, Forbes says an academic study published in Family Relations suggests.

Many people believe millennials have largely scratched marriage off their list of aspirations as 44 percent of young adults, a much larger share than of any other generation, feel marriage is “obsolete,” says Forbes. But research shows tying the knot is still important to most young people.

According to Pew Research data, 61 percent of people who have never been married, including young people, say they want to marry someday, says Forbes.

In fact, marriage rates among millennials are not set to decline equally. The problem is expected to be most severe among minorities and those who don't go to college.

College graduates are more likely to get married by 40, the Urban Institute report found. But they are also more likely to get married later in life than generations past so they can focus on their careers and build their finances after leaving school, Steven Martin, senior research associate at the Urban Institute and the report's co-author explained to CNN Money.

But having a young population that shows a preference for being single can be bad news.

“The evidence shows that getting married increases wealth and income,” explained Pamela Smock, a sociology professor at the University of Michigan.

The growing schism in marriage rates could exacerbate income inequality in this country, dividing society into mostly married “haves” and increasingly single “have nots,” says CNN Money.

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