WASHINGTON — The recession is profoundly disrupting American life: More people are delaying marriages and purchases of homes, turning to carpools yet getting stuck in ever-worse traffic, staying put rather than moving to new cities.
A broad array of U.S. census data released Monday also shows a dip in the foreign-born population last year, to fewer than 38 million, after it reached an all-time high in 2007. That was due to declines in low-skilled workers from Mexico searching for jobs in Arizona, Florida and California.
The findings come from the annual American Community Survey, a sweeping look at life built on information from 3 million households.
Preliminary data earlier this year found that many Americans were not moving, staying put in big cities rather than migrating to the Sun Belt, because of frozen lines of credit. Mobility is at a 60-year low, upending population trends ahead of next year’s census, which will be used to apportion U.S. House seats.
The percentage of people who drove alone to work dropped last year to 75.5 percent, the lowest in a decade, as commuters grew weary of paying close to $4 a gallon for gasoline and opted to carpool or take public transportation.
Average commute times edged up to 25.5 minutes, erasing years of decreases to stand at the level of 2000, as people had to leave home earlier in the morning to pick up friends for their ride to work or to catch a bus or subway train.
Palmdale, Calif., a suburb north of Los Angeles, posted the longest commute at 41.5 minutes. It barely edged out New York City, with its congestion and sprawling subway system, at 39.4 minutes. Shortest commute time: Bloomington, Ill., at 14.1 minutes.
Nationwide, more than one in eight workers, about 17.5 million, were out the door by 6 a.m.
Marital bliss also suffered. Nearly one in three Americans 15 and older, 31.2 percent, reported that they had never been married, the highest level in a decade. The share had previously hovered for years around 27 percent before beginning to climb during the housing downturn in 2006.
The never-married included three- quarters of men in their 20s and two-thirds of women in that age range. Sociologists say younger people are taking longer to reach economic independence and consider marriage.
The dip in foreign-born residents comes as the government considers immigration changes, including stepped-up border enforcement and a path toward U.S. citizenship. At nearly 38 million, immigrants made up 12.5 percent of the population in 2008; an estimated 11.9 million are here illegally.
An influx of workers from India, who came looking for specialized jobs in telecommunications, manufacturing, computers and software, partially offset the national immigration decrease.
About one in five U.S. residents spoke a language other than English at home, mostly clustered in California, New Mexico and Texas.
The survey also found that more older people are working. About 15.5 percent of Americans 65 and older, 6.1 million, were in the labor force. That’s up from 15 percent in 2007.
