Gen Z Isn't Getting Married Or Having Kids, But A Shopping Mall Mainstay Knows Exactly When You'll Get Engaged

Gen Z is not getting married or having babies at the same rate that older generations have, leading many to worry, including Elon Musk.

Gen Z is typically defined as people born between 1997 and 2013.

Trends were already lower in terms of marriage and birth rates for Gen Z, but according to data from Bowling Green State University, COVID-19 exacerbated the issue and marriages declined another 12% throughout the pandemic.

Signet Jewelers Ltd SIG, with brands that include Kay Jewelers and Zales The Diamond Store, reported earnings last week and touched on the recent marriage and engagement trends. But the company also said that by using data, it can predict when engagements and thus marriages will start picking back up again. 

“Meanwhile, engagements held flat during COVID at pre-pandemic levels but declined low double digits in fiscal '23 and will again decline low double digits in fiscal '24,”  Signet CEO Gina Drosos said. “We expect fiscal '24 to be the trough of engagements, with fiscal '25 seeing a return to growth and fiscal '26 returning to normalized levels.”

How Does Signet Know When Engagements Will Pick Back Up? Signet is able to collect and analyze various streams of data including website visits, in-store traffic and more. The company even knows how long relationships usually last before an engagement: three years. 

“We have rich proprietary data on couples' behavior,” Drosos said. “Engagements typically occur approximately three years after couples begin dating.”

So if you are waiting for your partner to pop the question, it may be coming in 2025 when Signet expects engagements to pick back up.

Or maybe once your relationship hits the three-year mark.