One simple thing I think about:
Forty years ago in North America, a couple without kids would have been outliers.
Today, they are still the exception but it's probably a lot easier to find community. I'm in this category and we don't feel as ostracized as I imagine we would have felt if we were living just a few decades ago.
There is a tipping point there. We do a lot of things in our lives just because we don't want to go against the flow and want community.