About 15% of married or engaged Americans have signed a prenuptial agreement, according to a 2022 Harris Poll — roughly five times the 3% rate the same organization recorded in 2010.1The Harris Poll. Prenuptial Agreements Data Tables Among younger couples, the share is far higher, and half of all U.S. adults now say they would be open to signing one. So the answer to what percent of marriages have prenups depends heavily on which generation you ask about.
The Headline Number and How It Has Moved
In 2010, Harris Interactive (now the Harris Poll) surveyed more than two thousand adults and found that just 3% of those who were married or engaged had ever signed a prenup. By 2022, that figure had reached 15%.1The Harris Poll. Prenuptial Agreements Data Tables A fivefold jump in roughly twelve years, and the trend is accelerating rather than flattening.
Family law attorneys see the same pattern. A survey by the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers found that 62% of its members reported an increase in prenup requests across all clients over a three-year period, with millennials driving the biggest surge.
How the Share Breaks Down by Generation
The overall 15% figure hides a sharp generational divide. A 2023 Axios/Harris poll asked respondents who were engaged or had been married whether they had entered a prenup:
- Gen Z: 41%
- Millennials: 47%
Among U.S. adults overall — regardless of age or marital status — about half said they were open to signing a prenuptial agreement.
The gap between the 15% headline and the 41-47% figures for younger cohorts isn’t a contradiction. Older married couples who never considered a prenup still make up a large share of the married population, and they pull the overall average down. Each new cohort of couples appears to be adopting prenups at a much higher rate than the one before it, which means the 15% number likely understates where things stand among couples getting married today.
Why the Share Keeps Climbing
The simplest explanation is that people are getting married later. The median age at first marriage is now around 28 for women and 30 for men. Both partners typically walk into a marriage with assets, debts, and financial histories that didn’t exist when people married at 22. Owning a condo, holding a retirement account, or running a freelance business before the wedding gives a person something concrete to protect.
Student loan debt is another major factor. When one partner carries $80,000 in loans and the other carries none, a prenup can specify that the debt stays with the person who incurred it. Without an agreement, divorce proceedings in some states leave that question murkier than either spouse would like.
Second and third marriages account for a disproportionate share of prenups. Someone who went through a messy divorce once has a different risk tolerance the second time around, particularly when children from a prior marriage are involved. A prenup can set aside assets meant for those children without forcing the new spouse into an adversarial position.
Cultural attitudes have shifted too. Younger couples increasingly treat a prenup the way they treat renters insurance: not a bet that something will go wrong, but a hedge in case it does. Social media, personal finance commentators, and online prenup platforms have helped normalize the conversation.
Prenups Are No Longer Just for the Wealthy
The generational numbers undercut the old assumption that prenups are a tool for the rich. The 41% and 47% rates among Gen Z and millennials aren’t driven by trust-fund couples. They’re driven by people with student debt, startup equity, modest retirement savings, and side businesses. A couple with $30,000 in combined savings and $100,000 in combined student loans can have as much practical reason to sign one as a couple with a vacation home.
What the Count Actually Counts
The 15% figure counts people who signed a prenuptial agreement before marrying. It’s worth knowing what that agreement can and can’t do, because the number is sometimes read as broader than it is.
A prenup is a contract two people sign before marriage, laying out how their finances will work during the marriage and how assets will be divided if it ends. It takes effect only once the couple is legally married. Most prenups address property division, debt allocation, spousal support, and inheritance or estate planning — especially in blended families.
Courts consistently refuse to enforce prenup provisions touching child custody or child support. Those decisions are made at the time of divorce based on the child’s best interests, and no contract signed before the child was born can override that standard. Lifestyle clauses — rules about social media, holidays, weight, or chores — are generally unenforceable too. So when a survey records someone as having “signed a prenup,” what that person has is a financial agreement, not a contract governing the whole relationship.
Couples who married without a prenup aren’t counted in the 15%, but some of them later sign postnuptial agreements covering similar financial ground. Courts tend to scrutinize postnups more closely for fairness, since the bargaining dynamics between spouses differ from those between people who haven’t yet married.
What Joining the 15% Costs
Professional fees for a prenuptial agreement generally run from about $1,000 to $10,000 per attorney, depending on the complexity of the couple’s finances and the local market for family law attorneys. A straightforward agreement between two people with modest assets and no business interests lands on the low end. Couples with multiple properties, business ownership stakes, trust funds, or complex compensation packages should expect to pay more.
Because both parties should have independent counsel, the practical total doubles. A couple each paying $2,500 for a midrange prenup would spend $5,000 combined. Online prenup platforms have emerged as a lower-cost alternative, with less customization and no in-person legal advice tailored to the couple’s situation. The availability of those cheaper options is one more reason the share of couples with prenups is likely to keep rising.