Divorce Rate And Statistics In America

The divorce rate has been declining since the turn of the 1980’s. Read on to understand how factors like location, age and social media usage impact divorce statistics. We will also look at the divorce rates of much heralded celebrity marriages and see what can be learned.

Anticipated Surge

At the dawn of the 2020s more people than ever are looking at the internet to seek out options and advice when considering a divorce resulting in a globally increased rate of divorce filing. For example:

• The United Kingdom continues to see a large rise in the number of divorces.
• Australia is seeing requests for divorce increase by 200%.
• Turkey has seen divorce filings increase by 400%.
• China is setting record figures for the number of divorce cases being filed.
• With courts closing in the US, there has been a large increase in people utilizing mediation in their divorce cases.

Divorce Statistics In the US

The idea half of marriages end in divorce was vaunted in the 1980s but research shows a decline in the rate of divorce in the ensuing decades. Not including those who get legally separated, the statistical breakdown is thus:

• First Marriages: 42-45 percent will terminate with a divorce as the result.
• Second Marriages: 60 percent will terminate with a divorce as the result.
• Third Marriages: 73 percent will terminate with a divorce as the result.

Another way of viewing these statistics is:

• 22 percent of women have been divorced at least once.
• 21 percent of men have been divorced at least once.
• 11 percent of women are divorced at the present time.
• 9 percent of men are divorced at the present time.

The age breakdown of those obtaining a divorce looks thus:

• Under 20: Women 27.6%, Men 11.7%
• 20 – 24: Women 36.6%, Men 38.8%
• 25 – 29: Women 16.4%, Men 22.3%
• 30 – 34: Women 8.5%, Men 11.6%
• 35 – 39: Women 5.1%, Men 6.5%

Facts About Divorce

• There are nearly 2,400 divorces every single day in the United States meaning an average of $16,800 divorces each week as well as upwards of 875,000 divorces per annum.
• Eight years is the average length of a first marriage that ends with a divorce.
• During a first marriage, there is a twenty percent chance within the first five years the marriage may end in divorce or separation and in a ten-year time frame that percentage goes up to thirty-three.
• Thirty years old is the average age when couples commence the divorce process.
• Two years is the average duration of time a person considers divorce before commencing the process.
• Around seventy-five percent of people who obtain a divorce will at some point get remarried.
• If they choose to remarry, the average wait time is three years.
• Love can happen again, six percent of couples report remarrying having got divorced!
• Detailed divorce and marriage statistics ceased to be assembled by the US Government back in the mid-1990s, so the data comes from independent researchers as well as the US Census.

Divorce Stats By Region And State

• The states with the lowest divorce rates are Iowa, Illinois, Massachusetts, Texas, and Maryland where between 1.2 and 2.6 of every 1,000 residents are divorced as of 2015.
• The states with the highest divorce rates are Alaska, Wyoming, Oklahoma, Nevada, and Arkansas where between 4.1 and 4.8 of every 1,000 residents are divorced as of 2015.

On a national scale just over 9 out of every 1,000 US residents obtain a divorce per annum. This ranges from a low in the Northeast section of the country for 7.2 per 1,000 men and 7.5 per 1,000 women to a high in the South of 9.1 per 1,000 men and 9.2 per, 1,000 women (all per annum.) The Midwest and Western United States all have figures between 9.1 and 9.2 per 1,000 men and 9.2 and 9.8 per 1,000 women per annum obtaining a divorce.

Politically speaking, states with a greater tendency to vote Republican have higher rates of divorce than states with a greater tendency to vote for the Democrats.

What Is The Likelihood Of Divorce?

The following factors have been shown to increase the likelihood of a divorce:

• Age disparity.
• The more money spent on engagement rings and wedding ceremonies and parties.
• Residing in an area with a high rate of evangelical or conservative Protestants.
• Associations with family members or friends who have recently obtained a divorce.
• You have a higher risk of divorce the more your co-workers are of the opposite sex.
• The younger you move in together and get married the higher the chances of divorce.

The following factors have been shown to decrease the likelihood of a divorce:

• If your parents are happily married, your chance of divorce reduces by around fourteen percent.
• If you have an annual income of more than $25,000 you are less likely to get divorced.
• If you have a baby at least seven months following your marriage the chances you will divorce goes down by twenty-four percent.
• Your chances of divorce fall by thirteen percent if you have attended college.
• You are less likely to get a divorce is you do not cohabitate or marry before the age of twenty-three.

Children And Divorce Statistics

• Sixteen percent of minors are living in a “blended family” situation where they reside with a stepsibling, half-sibling or step-parent.
• Children usually recover from the negative emotional effects of a divorce twenty-four months after the divorce process, though some take longer, and this is especially the case during divorce processed where the parents have a great deal of conflict.
• In over eighty percent of divorce cases the mother becomes the parent the children primarily reside with.

Social Media Divorce Statistics

• Online affairs cause one-third of divorces.
• Facebook is the cause for twenty-five percent of couples to fight at least once every seven days.
• Social media activity of their partner has caused at least one in seven married people to contemplate divorce.
• Twenty percent of people fell unease in their relationship when they find something unsettling on the Facebook account of their partner.

Gray Divorce Statistics

• Gray divorce (a term used for those getting divorced between the ages of fifty-four and sixty-four) has increased four-fold in the last three decades.
• Thirty years ago, only ten percent of divorces were for people more than the age of fifty, but in 2010, it accounted for twenty-five percent of all divorces.
• Nearly twenty years ago only forty-five percent of older Americans thought divorce was morally sound. That had ridden to just short of seventy percent in 2014.
• Match.com has seen the interest of divorce increase nearly forty percent since 2014 in web traffic from users over the age of fifty-five.
• Two-thirds of gray divorces are commenced by females.

Facts About Celebrity Divorces

• A mere $245 million was the divorce settlement paid by Mel Gibson to his ex, Robyn, in 2009. It is generally regarded as the largest celebrity involved in divorce settlement.
• Zsa Zsa Gabor chalked up nine marriages!
• Britney Spears has the dubious honor of the shortest celebrity marriage! A mere fifty-six hours was the length of her relationship with Jason Alexander before they obtained an annulment.
• Eddie Murphy and Tracey Edmonds managed two whole weeks of wedded bliss.
• Kim Kardashian and Kris Humphries lasted seventy-two days.
• Michael Jackson and Lisa Marie Presley kept it together for nine months.

If you have the fortune to watch the “Real Housewives” TV franchise – the overall divorce rate is over thirty-three percent with the Real Housewives of D.C. sporting a divorce rate of one hundred percent! The newest entry to the series, the Real Housewives of Dallas have yet to get going in the divorce courts are at the opposite end of the scale with zero percent. Those Real Housewives of Beverly Hills get divorced just under thirty-one percent of the time, while their compatriots in Miami manage to get divorced just under forty-three percent of the time. The Real New Jersey Housewives let the side down a little with a paltry divorce rate of just over eleven percent. But those in Orange County help out with a divorce rate approaching twenty-four percent. However, the Real Housewives of New York, Potomac, and Atlanta, back the assertion the eastern seaboard states are ample for getting a divorce with rates of fifty, fifty and sixty percent, respectively.

Source: McKinley Irvin. “32 Shocking Divorce Statistics.” McKinley Irvin, 7 Nov. 2019, www.mckinleyirvin.com/family-law-blog/2012/october/32-shocking-divorce-statistics/.