How Often Divorce Takes Place In The Us
11. Every 42 seconds, there is one divorce in America, That equates to 86 divorces per hour, 2,046 divorces per day, 14,364 divorces per week, and 746,971 divorces per year
12. Every 16 seconds, there is a marriage in the U.S. That equates to 230 marriages per hour, 38,762 marriages per week and 2,015,603 per year.
13. There are nearly 3 divorces in the time it takes for a couple to recite their wedding vows .
14. More than 172 divorces occur during your typical romantic comedy movie .
15. 430 divorces happen during the average wedding reception .
16. There are 5,975,768 divorces over the course of an average first marriage that ends in divorce .
17. Over a 40 year period, 67 percent of first marriages terminate.
18. Among all Americans 18 years of age or older, whether they have been married or not, 25 percent have gone through a marital split.
19. 15 percent of adult women in the United States are divorced or separated today, compared with less than one percent in 1920.
20. The average first marriage that ends in divorce lasts about 8 years.
Evidence Finds Marriage Is Good For Your Health Usually
Something is definitely going on among people in the second half of life thats different from younger adults, Brown says. Its quite distinctive and its at odds with the trend for younger adults these days. For them, the divorce rate is plummeting.
Epidemiological studies that follow large groups of people to compare outcomes associated with various factors suggest that people who are married tend to have better physical and mental health and live longer compared with people who arent married. A meta-analysis published in Psychological Bulletin found that across all health outcome categories, including cognitive function and cardiovascular health, there were small but consistent associations between greater marital quality and better health.
One In Three Divorces Starts As An Online Affair
One in seven married people has thought about divorce due to their partners activity on social media and dating apps. This is expected to get even more drastic in 2021, as this is the year that will reveal the extent of the last years consequences.
A quarter of couples said that they argue about Facebook at least once a week, making it one of the most common causes of divorce, statistics reveal.
In fact, for online evidence in divorce cases, with 81% of AAML divorce attorneys using evidence obtained from social media.
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Divorce Statistics In The Us
Hollywood makes you think that anythings possible if you just love enough. Unfortunately, this is not always the case. As we are entering 2021, we are facing a fragile economy, unstable jobs, and pandemic-related stress.
All of this affects the American average marriage length in unexpected ways. Read on and discover how many people file for divorce during the pandemic and what are the factors which influence American marriages.
Race And Hispanic Origin

- Among race and Hispanic origin groups, ever-married Asian women and men had the lowest proportion ever-divorced .
- Among currently married women in their first marriage in 2016, 10% were in an interracial/interethnic marriage and 8% were in a mixed-nativity marriage .
No news release associated with this report. Tip sheet only.
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Financial Security Is One Of The Reasons Why People Postpone Marriage
16% of cohabiting couples live below the poverty line as opposed to 8% of married couples. These statistics seem to suggest that young couples are less likely to get married until they have some financial stability in their lives.
Overall, couples who are older, well-off, and highly educated are more likely to tie the knot. Divorce statistics confirm this as US adults getting married in their late 20s have less than a 50% chance of getting divorced.
General Statistics On Divorces
1. Couples are more likely to break up if only one of the partners is a heavy drinker and the other is not than they are if both partners having the same drinking habits.
While its no secret that the happiness of marital couples can significantly depend on alcohol drinking habits, few could predict in what way. According to a study by the University of Buffalo Research Institute on Addictions, a divorce occurred among almost 50% of couples in which just one of the partners used alcohol heavily.
At the same time, when both partners were either heavy drinkers or neither one was, only 30% divorced in the same study period.
In other words:
When it comes to stats on divorce, the couples who share similar drinking habits are more likely to stay married.
2. The current divorce rate in the US is 3.2 per 1,000 population.
According to CDC divorce rates, 2014 is the latest year of available data, with 44 states and the District of Columbia reporting. The previously mentioned stat is what’s called the “crude divorce rate.”
On the one hand, this rate doesn’t provide precise information regarding the percentage of first marriages that end in divorce. On the other, it is still useful when it comes to describing changes in divorce rates over some time. Yet, many experts feel that the divorce rate per 1,000 married women is a much more accurate measure of the actual divorce rate.
Currently, the figure stands at 16.9.
3. Close to 9% of 30-year-olds had already ended one marriage in 2018.
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Divorce In The United States Also Known As Dissolution Of Marriage Is A Legal Process In Which A Judge Or Other Authority Dissolves The Bonds Of Matrimony Existing Between Two Persons Thus Restoring Them To The Status Of Being Single And Permitting Them To Marry Other Individuals
*Each state in the United States has its own set of grounds. A person must state the reason they want a divorce at a divorce trial and be able to prove that this reason is well-founded. Several states require that the couple must live apart for several months before being granted a divorce. However, living apart is not accepted as grounds for a divorce in many states.
Divorce Rates In America Statistics 2022
1. The divorce rate in America is 2.9 per 1,000.
According to the CDC, the current divorce rate is just 2.9 per 1,000. However, only 45 states and the District of Columbia submitted enough data to be considered in this nationwide study. As Indiana, California, Hawaii, New Mexico and Minnesota are not counted, there may be some variation on this figure.
2. Recent divorce rates suggest a decrease in the number of people dissolving their marriage.
The divorce rate has increased since 1960. But since 1990, there has been a downward trend in divorce statistics. This suggests divorce rates over time are changing drastically, as are marriage and cohabitation trends. By assessing the divorce rate statistics by year, its easy to see that the rate of divorce in the US is on a general decline.
3. More people in the US were married in 2018 than in 1960.
Despite the overall long-term increase in divorce rates in America, more US residents were married in 2018 than in 1960. This may highlight the effect an increasing population has on the statistics on marriage and divorce.
4. Over three-quarters of a million divorces took place in the US in 2017.
In 2017, approximately 787,251 divorces were granted in America, which means that around one and a half million people got divorced that year. As the national divorce rates continue to fall, its likely that the number of divorces in the US per year will continue to fall in the future.
5. Remarriage increases the risk of divorce.
Key takeaway:
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Divorce Rate By Gender
Between men and women, women are the ones who chiefly initiate divorces. Interestingly, the duration of their first marriages lasts l0nger than that of men. But their second marriages are shorter. This implies that men should be mindful of their spouses needs and emotions if they want the marriage to last. As for same-sex couples, once again, all-female marriages have a higher mortality rate. The reason for this could be that lesbian couples enter marriages too early .
- Women initiate divorce 69% of the time. This figure shoots up to 90% for college-educated women.
- The average length of a first marriage that ends up in a divorce for men is 7.8 years.
- For women, the average first marriage length that ends up in a divorce is 7.9 years.
- Meanwhile, for second marriages, its 7.3 years for men and 6.8 years for women.
- 63.7% of women across the globe are married or in a cohabiting union.
- According to Its Over Easy, the divorce rate of women is 7.7 per 1,000 people.
- Law firm Wilkinson & Finkbeiner estimates the rate to be higher at 16.9.
- 54% of divorced women do not want to remarry while only 30% of divorced men share this sentiment .
Same-Sex Divorce Statistics
Get Curious About Your Partner
When you first fall in love with a person, youre very curious about what they are thinking and feeling, but couples who have been married for a long time can lose that, says Harville Hendrix, PhD, a couples therapist and coauthor of Getting the Love You Want . Curiosity is when I show interest in you as a person without it necessarily being driven by anything I need. Its really important in a relationship and its sexy, he says.
Being curious is good for relationships because it helps you to listen and be more open, he says. When your partner is talking to you, instead of wondering when theyll be finished so you can interject a story or comment of your own, try asking: Can you tell me more about that? suggests Dr. Hendrix. It makes your partner feel valued and safe when you give them your full attention, and it promotes bonding between the two of you, he adds.
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Do Men And Women Feel Differently About Divorce
Historically, divorce has always affected men and women in different ways. This gap has steadily decreased over time, but does gender still affect opinions on divorce? To find out, we asked for the gender of our survey respondents.
- Just over a third of men believe that you should never get divorced , while 1 in 4 women believe the same .
- This means that a massive 12% more men than women believe that divorce is never okay.
- In contrast, 6% more women than men believe that you should be able to get a no-fault divorce .
- 15% of men in the USA disagreewith marriage altogether, while only 10% of women feel the same way.
- More men said that they do not believe in marriage than believe that divorcing without reason is okay .
Divorce Is Common In Indiana & Oregon

A while back, DatingNews.com ranked the U.S. towns with the highest divorce rates to see if any patterns popped up. Surprisingly, Indiana and Oregon seem to be hotspots for divorced people. Four Indiana towns and two Oregon towns cracked the top-20 list.
With 20% of its residents identifying as divorcees, Brookings, Oregon, had the highest divorce rate of any town in the U.S.
Brookings, Oregon, is a coastal community with the highest divorce rate in the U.S.
Our list of divorce-ridden towns featured a range of rural towns, beachside communities, and manufacturing hubs, but we did see a common thread tying almost all these places together economic downturn. When times are hard, it takes a toll on married couples, and sometimes individuals decide theyre better off starting fresh and looking for opportunities elsewhere.
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Divorce Rates In The Us Indicate 29 Divorces Per 1000 Population
This translates to 787,251 divorces in 2018 alone. What about marriage statistics in the US? In 2018, there were 2,236,496 marriages a rate of 6.9 per 1,000 total population. This, however, is according to data compiled from just 44 states, including DC, and represents a crude divorce and marriage rate in the US and not an accurate number.
Your Habits Your Marriage
66. The risk of divorce was said to be almost doubled 97 percent higher when the mother went out to work but her husband made a minimal contribution to housework and childcare.
67. In 2011, Facebook was cited as a major contributor to 1/3 of divorce petitions examined by one U.K. study.
68. In a study by the University of Rochester, researchers said that watching romantic movies and having a conversation around it helps in lowering the divorce rates from 24 to 11 percent in marriages of three years.
69. Pornography addiction was cited as a factor in 56 percent of divorces according to a recent study.
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Global & Us Divorce Statistics
Thanks to cutting-edge and accessible information, organizations and researchers can uncover hidden patterns and correlations from the data they gather. For example, you can not only learn about the divorce rate by country but also look into how general demographics like age, income, and even education and profession can become indicators of divorce.
Data analysts usually use census data and the crude divorce rate when determining divorce rates of different nations. The United Nations Population Division defines the crude divorce rate as the annual number of divorces per 1,000 population. This simply takes the total number of divorced couples per year divided by the total population then multiplied by 1,000.
Wikipedia
Divorce statistics in the US
CDC data shows that the divorce rate in the US has been steadily declining since 2000. The countrys CDR in 2018 stands at 2.9 compared to a high of 4.0 18 years ago.
CDC/NCHS
Major life-factors that can influence a couples divorce risk
Income & Finances
- Couples with an annual income of more than $50,000 a year can lower their risk of divorce as much as 30% compared to those with lower than $25,000 per year.
- The greater the mismatch between a couples credit scores, the more likely theyll separate within the first 5 years.
- Couples who argue about finances once a week are 30% more likely to end their marriage.
- 59% of Americans who have gotten divorced within the past 5 years said finances played a role in their divorce.
There Has Been A Decoupling Of Parenthood And Marriage
The share of children born outside of marriage has increased substantially in almost all OECD countries
An arrangement where two or more people are not married but live together is referred to as cohabitation. In recent decades cohabitation has become increasingly common around the world. In the US, for example, the US Census Bureauestimates that the share of young adults between the age of 18 and 24 living with an unmarried partner went up from 0.1% to 9.4% over the period 1968-2018 and according to a recent survey from Pew Research, today most Americans favor allowing unmarried couples to have the same legal rights as married couples.
The increase in cohabitation is the result of the two changes that we discussed above: fewer people are choosing to marry and those people who do get married tend to do so when they are older, and often live with their partner before getting married. In the UK, for example, 85% of people who get married cohabited first.5
The chart here shows the percentage of all children who were born to unmarried parents.
As we can see, the share of children born outside of marriage has increased substantially in almost all OECD countries in recent decades. The exception is Japan, where there has been only a very minor increase.
In 1970, most OECD countries saw less than 10% of children born outside of marriage. In 2014, the share had increased to more than 20% in most countries, and to more than half in some.
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Global Divorce Statistics Of 2022
Divorce is a difficult subject for everyone, and has been a point of contention for centuries across the globe. While divorce is now legal in all but two out of 195 countries, opinions on both divorces and divorcees remain mixed regardless of country or religion.
To find out more about opinions on divorce, we asked 2,001 adults in the United States how they feel about divorce and when they think itâs acceptable to get divorced. We also researched global divorce laws to find out just how difficult it is to get a divorce in each country.
Divorce Rate In America 2022
Looking further back, the U.S. divorce rate peaked in 1979-1981 with 53% of all marriages ending with divorce . In 2021, the divorce rate was initially estimated to be around 45%, but that was before Covid-19 restrictions hit the U.S. married population and the courts. Delayed court proceedings and the desire of couples to stick-it-out and withhold filing until the pandemic eased its impact likely reduced the number of filings in 2020 and early 2021. By mid-2021, many legal professionals were projecting a notable increase in divorce filings.
Divorce Trend #7: With divorce court backlogs from the pandemic resolved, the divorce rate will fall below 45%.
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About 17% Of New Marriages Are Interracial Couples
The Pew Research Center has tracked American marriage rates and found a steady increase in interracial marriages since 1967 the year interracial marriage was legalized in the U.S.
In 1967, just 3% of American marriages were between interracial couples. Today, 17% of newlyweds are entering an interracial marriage. That may not sound like a lot, but it amounts to about 11 million married men and women who have chosen a partner of a different race or ethnicity.
Interracial marriage is slightly more common among well-educated Americans.
Its kind of crazy to think how far weve come as a society. Todays young interracial couples probably have parents or grandparents who grew up in a time when it was illegal for Black men to marry white women.
Interracial dating and interracial marriage may not be the norm in American society , but its encouraging to see couples chipping away at stereotypes, racism, and ethnic divisions year after year.