Among people I know, most are married within 2-3 years of finishing their education and finding relatively stable employment, and all but a few have children within a couple of years of marriage.
A few people I knew in high school had children out of wedlock, but so far the general pattern is surprisingly similar across levels of educational attainment. Those who were able to find work without going to college or grad school just have a few years head start on those who spent more years as students, and (so far, at least) are more likely to have more than one child. (I'm not particularly keen on getting married, and I'm even less enthusiastic about children, so all of this is a bit discomforting.)
Obviously, none of this accounts for my former classmates - both from high school and from college - who have fallen into the unemployed (or marginally employed) underclass, most of whom are so totally detached from social life that they've essentially become invisible.
Does this make you more enthusiastic than you were previously?
