A third of today’s young American adults will never marry, projects think tank the Institute for Family Studies, compared to less than a fifth of those born in previous decades.

The share of childless adults under 50 who say they are unlikely to ever have kids, meanwhile, rose 10 percentage points between 2018 and 2023, from 37% to 47%, according to Pew Research Center.

Although some 30-somethings are consciously choosing a less traditional path, many say these goals are simply out of reach.

As a mix of social and economic factors holds back an entire generation, what researchers once called a lag, they now say is starting to look like a permanent state of arrested development.

“We’re moving from later to never,” says Richard Reeves, president of the American Institute for Boys and Men. He notes that the longer people take to launch into a more conventional adulthood, the less likely they are to do it at all.