In the mid-1980s, an infamous Newsweek article terrified smart girls everywhere when it stated that a single, college-educated 40-year-old woman was more likely to die in a terrorist attack than to find a husband. While that statement was discredited over and over, that didn't stop it from showing up again and again in popular culture - and the issue was revived last week when a study from the Pew Research Center reported that high-earning, college-educated women have few men to choose from if they're looking for a partner with equivalent credentials. But now the Council on Contemporary Families, reported by The New York Times' Well blog, is trying to offer smart, mature women some reassurance.

The details and prognosis for women who haven't marched down the aisle by their 40th birthday?

1. According to a briefing paper by the Council on Contemporary Families, women with a college degree have historically been the "least likely" group to marry, but things are improving for educated women. In 1950, 90 percent of white female high school graduates had married by 40, but fewer than 75 percent of college-educated white women had married by 40.

2. By 1980, the gap had almost closed and 92 percent of 40-year-old white female college graduates had married. Since the 1980s, marriage rates have fallen for all women, and the chance of marriage by 40 is about the same whether or not a woman has a college degree - and now women who drop out of high school are least likely to marry and college-educated women are least likely to divorce.

3. Race plays a role, and black women have a different story. Overall marriage rates are lower, but a black woman is significantly more likely to be married if she's a college graduate than she is if she simply has a high school diploma.

4. And the marriage after 40 question? The paper found that college-educated women over 40 are twice as likely to marry before 50 as their high-school educated 40-year-old counterparts. Educated women are also more likely to report being happily married than less educated women.