For years, America's elites have argued that blue states—with their generous family policies and better-educated populations—are better equipped to foster strong families. But according to the 2026 Family Structure Index, a new interactive report from the Center for Christian Virtue and Institute for Family Studies, the demographic trends tell a different story: red states manage to attract more families and foster higher marriage and fertility rates.
Families Leaving Blue States
The 2026 Family Structure Index spotlights red states’ growing dominance on the family front. Take family migration. From 2019 to 2024, there has been a steady exodus of families from Blue to Red America—370,000 families from blue to red states. In fact, going back to 2008, a net total of 713 thousand married families with children left blue states for red states over 16 years.1
The Great American Family Sort
The report also finds that marriage and family trends moved in opposite directions in red and blue states. From 2019 to 2024, red states saw the share of prime-age adults who are married rise 1.8 percentage points and the share of teens in married-parent families rise 0.2 points; blue states saw both figures fall. Fertility declined across the board, but the drop was steeper in blue states. Taken together, there is a “Great American Family Sort” unfolding, where Americans are increasingly likely to get married and have and raise their kids in Red America.
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