Raising Up a Generation of Two-Percenters

Married, homeowner, at least one child, all before 25.

This morning I was talking with a church member who’s also a coworker. She and her husband are 22 and 23 and closing on their first home next week. They got married last year. Not long ago she was a teenager in our youth group. Now she’s a young married woman building a life. I couldn’t be prouder.

Her older sister is in a similar spot, except she’s already a mom. My own son and daughter-in-law are 19 and renting a house, but I doubt homeownership and kids are far off for them either.

Moments like that remind me what I was hoping to do by planting a church and building a business here in Batavia. I want to help create a culture where early marriage, kids, and putting down roots are normal goals again, and where it’s actually possible to pull them off.

I sometimes call that being a “Two-Percenter”: married, homeowner, at least one child, all before 25.

That’s not a dig at anyone who isn’t there. It’s just math. If you stack those milestones together in the U.S. today: under 25, married, homeowner, and with a child, you’re talking about a very small slice of the population.

We’ve got decent data on each piece by itself:

- Married under 25: roughly 8–12%

- Have a child by 24: roughly 15–20% of women (less across the whole population)

- Homeowners under 25: roughly 20–25%

But the overlap is what matters. To hit all three, you have to marry early, have a child early, and buy a house early. Each step narrows the field. Put them together and you land in the low single digits.

Realistic ballpark:

People under 25 who are married, homeowners, and have a child are probably around 2–4% of that age group. Tighten it to 18–24 only and it’s likely closer to 1–3%.

In plain English: by today’s standards, someone under 25 who is already married, owns a home, and has a kid is statistically uncommon. Not unheard of. Just outside the norm.

Forty-plus years ago that described a big share of 24-year-olds. Now it’s a small minority. I’m trying, in my little corner of the world, to make it less rare again.

Some people might turn the idea of becoming a Two-Percenter into a hard rule. That’s not my aim. It’s a solid, challenging target that takes focus and discipline. If it happens a little sooner or later, so what? The character required to get there still gets built. You still have to pass on a lot of the foolishness many twenty-somethings waste time on. You still have to find a worthy spouse, get your finances in order, and treat marriage as something that normally includes children. All of that is good.