TL;DR: According to a 2023 Harris Poll conducted for Axios, 50% of U.S. adults said they at least somewhat support prenups, up from 42% in 2022. But openness is not the same as adoption: the same polling found only about 1 in 5 married couples has a prenup. Attitudes have moved faster than paperwork, and that gap is the real story.You saw the headline. Maybe it was in a news feed, maybe a friend shared it: half of American adults would sign a prenup now. If you're engaged or thinking seriously about marriage, that stat probably made you pause and wonder whether a prenup has quietly become the normal, mainstream thing to do, or whether it's mostly hype.
Here is the number, and where it comes from. According to a 2023 Harris Poll conducted for Axios, 50% of U.S. adults said they at least somewhat supported the use of prenups, up from 42% the prior year. That is a real shift in a short window. But it measures how people feel about the idea, not how many have signed one. Keeping those two things separate is the whole point of this post.
The headline number, and where it comes from The 50% figure comes from polling by The Harris Poll, reported by Axios in September 2023. Half of U.S. adults said they at least somewhat support the use of prenuptial agreements. A year earlier, that figure sat at 42%. An eight-point move in a single year is notable for any attitude question.
What the poll captured is support: agreement with the idea that prenups are reasonable. That is worth understanding precisely, because "I support the use of prenups" and "I have a prenup" are two different statements. One is an attitude. The other is a signed legal document. The headline blends them, and most coverage does too.
For the fuller data picture, including generational breakdowns and marriage trends, our prenup statistics report pulls the numbers together in one place.
Openness is not adoption Here is the part the headline leaves out. In the same 2023 Axios Harris Poll, about 1 in 5 married couples reported having a prenup. Support sits near half of adults; adoption sits closer to 20%.
That gap has a simple explanation. Supporting an idea costs nothing. Signing a prenup means having a conversation with your partner, thinking through your finances, and completing a legal agreement before the wedding. People warm to an idea long before they act on it.
The 2023 numbers aren't the only data point. A separate 2022 Harris Poll found that 15% of married or engaged adults had signed a prenup, up from 3% in 2010. That is a fivefold increase in roughly a decade. Adoption is rising, clearly, but from a low base, and it still trails stated support by a wide margin.
Reading the two figures side by side helps:
Measure
What it captures
Figure
Source
Support the use of prenups (2023)
Attitude
50% of U.S. adults
Harris Poll for Axios (2023)
Support the use of prenups (2022)
Attitude
42% of U.S. adults
Harris Poll (2022)
Married couples who have a prenup
Behavior
~1 in 5
Harris Poll for Axios (2023)
Married/engaged adults who signed a prenup (2022)
Behavior
15%
Harris Poll (2022)
Same figure in 2010
Behavior
3%
Harris Poll (2022)
The top two rows measure how people feel. The bottom three measure what they have done. When a headline says "half of adults would sign a prenup," it is describing the top rows. That gap between attitude and action is where most of the confusion lives, and it is also where the opportunity sits for couples who are ready to move.
Why younger couples are driving the shift Age tells you where this trend is heading. In the 2023 Harris Poll for Axios, 47% of millennials and 41% of Gen Z adults who are engaged or married said they entered a prenup, far above older generations. That is a striking contrast: adoption among younger couples runs close to the overall support figure, while it stays low among their parents' and grandparents' generations.
When the couples entering marriage today are the ones most likely to sign, the overall adoption rate tends to climb as those cohorts make up a larger share of newlyweds. The attitude data and the behavior data point the same direction for younger couples, which is what makes the shift feel durable rather than a one-year blip.
If you want the deeper look at why prenups took hold with this generation, we cover it in how prenups got so popular with millennials . And the change isn't only generational; more women are requesting prenups than ever before , which is reshaping who initiates the conversation.
What's behind the attitude change People aren't warming to prenups in a vacuum. A few long-running trends are doing the work.
Couples are marrying later. The U.S. Census Bureau reported a median age at first marriage in 2024 of 30.2 for men and 28.6 for women, both record highs. Marrying in your late twenties or thirties usually means arriving with something already built: savings, a retirement account, maybe a business or property, and often student debt. When two people bring established finances into a marriage, deciding in advance how those finances work feels less like suspicion and more like ordinary planning.
The broader marriage picture adds context. According to the National Center for Family and Marriage Research at Bowling Green State University, the U.S. saw 2,390,482 marriages and 986,810 divorces in 2024, a marriage-to-divorce ratio of 2.42, the highest since the American Community Survey began tracking it in 2008. Many people in this cohort also grew up watching their own parents divorce without any plan in place. That lived experience shapes how they think about protecting themselves and each other.
Put those together, and prenups start to look like part of the same financial toolkit as a joint budget or a will. For a closer look at the stigma question, is a prenup a red flag unpacks it directly.
What a prenup can and can't do Before you decide where you land, it helps to know what you would be signing. A prenup is a written agreement that a couple makes before marriage, setting out how assets, debts, and financial responsibilities will be handled if the marriage ends or one partner dies. Prenups are recognized in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, and 29 states plus D.C. have adopted a version of the Uniform Premarital Agreement Act or Uniform Premarital and Marital Agreements Act , which creates a shared framework for how these agreements are treated.
What a prenup can do: keep separate property separate, address how income and assets acquired during the marriage are treated, clarify responsibility for debts, and spell out expectations that would otherwise be left to a court. A well-drafted prenup is designed to give you and your partner control over those decisions rather than defaulting to your state's rules.
What it cannot do: it can't decide child custody or child support in advance (courts decide those based on the child's best interests), and it can't lock in an outcome no matter what. Enforceability is decided case by case by a judge, based on your state's requirements and whether the agreement was entered fairly and with full disclosure.
Your state's default rules matter here. In community property states, most assets acquired during marriage are treated as jointly owned and split evenly at divorce. In equitable distribution states (the majority), property is divided by fairness factors a judge weighs, and "equitable" doesn't always mean "equal." A prenup lets you set your own terms instead of leaving the split to those defaults. If you want to see what happens without one, what happens if you don't have a prenup walks through how state law fills the gap.
One more reframe worth naming, since the data invites it: prenups are no longer the preserve of the wealthy. If that assumption is lingering in the back of your mind, are prenups just for the rich and famous addresses it head-on.
Frequently Asked Questions What percentage of people are open to signing a prenup? According to a 2023 Harris Poll conducted for Axios, 50% of U.S. adults said they at least somewhat support the use of prenups, up from 42% in 2022. "Open to" here means supportive of the idea; it does not mean half of adults have signed one.
How many couples actually have a prenup? Roughly 1 in 5 married couples reports having a prenup, according to the 2023 Axios Harris Poll. A separate 2022 Harris Poll found 15% of married or engaged adults had signed one, up from 3% in 2010. Support is high; adoption is lower but rising.
Are younger generations more likely to get prenups? Yes. In the 2023 Harris Poll for Axios, 47% of millennials and 41% of Gen Z adults who are engaged or married said they entered a prenup, far above older generations. Younger couples are driving most of the growth in both attitudes and adoption.
Why are more people open to prenups now? Couples are marrying later, often bringing separate assets and student debt into the marriage. Many also grew up watching parents divorce without a plan. Together, these trends make a prenup feel like ordinary financial planning rather than a sign of distrust.
Does being open to a prenup mean I should get one? Not automatically. Openness reflects a shift in attitude; whether a prenup fits depends on your finances, your state's default rules, and what you and your partner want to decide together rather than leave to a court.
Turning openness into a plan If the headline stat made you curious, you're in good company. Half of adults feeling positive about prenups is a real shift, and it says something reassuring: choosing to make one is an ordinary, thoughtful decision, not a fringe one. But feeling open to an idea and finishing an agreement are different steps, and only you and your partner can decide whether that second step makes sense for your situation.
If you're one of the many couples who feel open to a prenup and want to move from "we're considering it" to a finished agreement, First was built for exactly that. No hourly billing, no back and forth with attorneys you didn't choose, no paperwork you have to chase. You can explore First's packages when you're ready. There's no rush, and starting early gives you room to do it calmly and on your own timeline.
And if you're still unsure whether a prenup fits your circumstances, that's a fair place to be. Talk it through with your partner, and if you want a professional read on your specific situation, speak with independent counsel before deciding.
Survey figures reflect stated attitudes and self-reported behavior at a point in time and may shift year to year. Whether a prenup is right and enforceable depends on your state's rules and your circumstances; couples should consult independent counsel.
Methodology These figures are drawn from The Harris Poll (2022 and 2023, the latter reported by Axios), the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey (2024), and the National Center for Family and Marriage Research (2024 data), covering national U.S. adult samples and vital-statistics counts. The 50%/42% support figures and the 1-in-5 adoption figure were reported by Axios from a September 2023 Harris Poll. The 15%-vs-3% figures come from a Harris Poll survey conducted May 20 to 23, 2022, among 1,073 U.S. adults aged 18 and older, weighted to be representative.
Sources First is not a law firm. The information and tools provided by First on this site are not legal advice and not a substitute for the advice of an attorney.
