Divorce Rates

Divorce rates are actually not the highest they have been, but they have leveled out. It is still high and most marriages end up in divorce. The graph below, from University of Maryland, shows divorce rates from 1950-1999. This graph shows divorce increasing during the 1970’s when the Uniform Marriage and Divorce Act was established. Divorce finally peaked in the 1980’s and then slightly decreased right after that.

In America divorce is most like to happen to couples who married between the ages of 20-24. Women who married at this age divorce 36.6% of the time and men 38.8%. The second highest rate of divorce for woman is marrying under 20 years (woman 27.6%, men 11.7%). For men the second highest rate is getting married between 25-29 years (woman 16.4%, men 22.3%). According the statistics, if you want a marriage to last it is best to wait until you are between the ages of 25-29 (woman 5.1%, men 6.5%) (Baker). I think that it makes sense that marriage last longer the older you are. It is human nature to be curious and want more. Americans live longer than they have in the past and it is still surprising that we are to find the one person to be with for the majority of life. I also think that this is why the divorce rate has increased. United States has the highest divorce rate in the world, 4.95 per 1,000 people (NationMaster). It is also true that once you go though a divorce it is more likely for you to end up in another divorce. A first marriage has a 45-50% chance for divorce, a second marriage has a 60-67% chance and a third marriage has 70-73% chance (Baker).

Resources:

http://www.bsos.umd.edu/socy/vanneman/socy441/trends/divorce.html (graph)
http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/peo_div_rat-people-divorce-rate
http://www.divorcestatistics.org/