The most underused tool for fighting poverty in Arizona isn’t a new program. It’s a wedding ring.
Recently, Center for Arizona Policy and the Institute for Family Studies released the 2026 Family Structure Index, a national study that ranks Arizona’s family structure 35th, behind New Jersey, Washington, and Colorado. When the marriage rate rises, the child poverty rate falls, school scores climb, and welfare rolls shrink. Arizona’s 35th-place ranking is not a final outcome. It is an invitation.
It is also, whether Arizona is ready to hear an important dose of reality.
Our public statement on Arizona’s place in the FSI comes out Monday. As a vital part of the CAP family, we wanted to share it with you first.
Arizona families, by the Numbers
Arizona’s family structure is not in a good place, and Arizona children are the ones paying for it.
Ten percent of Arizona children in intact families (married mother and father) homes live in poverty. In homes where either a mother or a father is absent, thirty-eight percent do. Children in non-intact Arizona families are 104 percent more likely to live in poverty than those raised by married parents. The Family Structure Index, which measures marriage rates among prime-age adults, fertility, and the share of children raised by married parents, simply puts numbers to what Arizona families already live with.
Barely half of Arizona adults between 25 and 54 are married. Our fertility rate has fallen to 1.60, well below the replacement rate of 2.l. The families Arizona is forming are fewer, later, and less likely to stay whole.
The cost is not limited to those homes. Unmarried Arizona adults between 25 and 54 receive welfare at more than twice the rate of their married peers, inflating Medicaid and human services costs, the two largest line items in the state’s General Fund. The poverty gap between Maricopa County, with the highest marriage rate, and Apache County, with the lowest, is twenty-two points. Every one of those numbers is the cost of a wedding ring gone unworn.
“Family structure is one of the strongest predictors we have for whether children and communities are thriving,” said Brad Wilcox, Distinguished University Professor of Sociology at the University of Virginia and a lead researcher on the report. “States that are doing well in this area have markedly lower levels of child poverty, as well as higher rates of economic mobility and home ownership.”
Family structure cannot be rebuilt by statistics. It is rebuilt by parents, grandparents, pastors, community leaders, and policymakers who take findings like those in the FSI seriously and act on them. Reaching those people with this data is the priority. Because if the wedding ring is the tool, the work is getting it back into Arizona hands.
Legislative Update
Several bills affecting CAP’s core issues are moving through the Arizona legislature and are close to the Governor’s desk.
HB2144, child support; preborn children, sponsored by Representative Justin Olson, requires child support owed to a mother to begin accruing from the date of a positive pregnancy test rather than from birth. It recognizes that the costs of carrying an unborn baby are significant and begin long before birth. It has passed out of the Senate and is awaiting a concurring vote in the House before transmission to the Governor.
HB2830, fetal and prenatal development; instruction, sponsored by Representative Rachel Keshel, requires Arizona’s science standards to include instruction on prenatal human development from a single cell through successive stages until birth. Arizona students deserve an accurate, scientific account of where human life begins and how it grows. It has passed out of the Senate and is awaiting a concurring vote in the House before transmission to the Governor.
HB2249, parents’ bill of rights; remedies, sponsored by Representative Lisa Fink, strengthens Arizona’s Parents’ Bill of Rights. It requires parental consent before a school can socially transition a minor child, including the use of any name, nickname, or pronoun that conflicts with the child’s name of origin or biological sex. It also grants parents the right to request, review, and access their minor child’s complete educational record, including any information about the child’s physical, emotional, mental, or academic well-being, and establishes penalties for violations. It passed the Senate Committee of the Whole and needs one more Senate vote. Because the Senate amended it, the bill then returns to the House for a concurrence vote before reaching the Governor.
SB1741, public schools; released time courses, sponsored by Senate President Warren Petersen, requires district and charter schools to allow released-time programs for religious instruction and sets out how those programs must operate. Released-time instruction is constitutionally settled and already operates across Arizona, but certain school boards have been denying programs in their districts. SB1741 ends that discretion. It awaits its final House vote before transmission to the Governor.
HB2720, prostitution; assessment; anti-human trafficking fund, sponsored by Representative Selina Bliss, raises the penalty for purchasing sex to a class 6 felony and imposes a $200 assessment on buyers, with proceeds funding services for survivors of sex trafficking. The bill is aimed at the buyers who fuel demand in the sex trafficking industry. It awaits the Senate floor.
Governor Hobbs has reportedly stated she will sign no further legislation until she receives a budget proposal from the Republicans. Every bill above is in limbo while that standoff continues.
2026 AZ Voter Guide
CAP’s 2026 AZ Voter Guide is a free, nonpartisan resource that shows you exactly where every candidate stands on the issues that matter most to your family. Sign up now to receive yours before voting begins.
ICYMI
- See how Planned Parenthood is fighting against parental notification in Nevada
- Read the report from Goldwater that alleges Arizona Universities using DEI-focused courses to fulfil civics requirements
- See the latest on the misconduct claim against U.S. Senator Ruben Gallego
- Stay informed! Sign up to receive our 2026 AZ Voter Guide.