Quick Stats
- Number of marriages: 2,162,000
- Marriage rate: 7.1 per 1,000 total population
- Divorce rate: 3.5 per 1,000 population
- Texas had the total highest number of divorces and North Dakota had lowest.
(Source: CDC.gov reporting on 44 states and the District of Columbia)
Your Chance for Marriage by Age
- Married by 25 - Women: 50%
- Married by 27 - Men: 50%
- Married by 30 - Women: 74%; Men: 61%
- Married by 40 - Women 86%; Men 81%
(Source: CDC.gov)
What are the chances your marriage will end in divorce?
- 20% of marriages will end in divorce within 5 years.
- 35% of marriages end in divorce within 10 years.
- 43% of marriages end in divorce within 15 years.
- 50% of marriages end in divorce within 20 years.
- Marriages that end do not always end in divorce; many end in separation and do not go through the divorce process.
- Separated Caucasian women are much more likely (91%) to divorce after 3 years, compared with separated Hispanic women (77%) and separated African American women (67%).
(Source: CDC.gov)
Is there a better chance for success when living together?
- Unmarried cohabitations (living together) overall are less stable than marriages.
- The chance of a premarital cohabitation breaking up within 5 years is 49 percent (compared to 20% for marriages).
- After 10 years, 62 percent for premarital cohabitations dissolve (compared to 35% for marriages).
(Source: CDC.gov)
Top 10 States for Divorce (by volume)
- Texas
- Florida
- New York
- Ohio
- North Carolina
- Illinois
- Michigan
- Pennsylvania
- Virginia
- Washington
(Source CDC.gov provisional data for January -June 2009; Excludes divorce data for California, Georgia, Hawaii, Indiana, Louisiana, and Minnesota)
Other Divorce Statistics
- Someone gets divorced every 10 to 13 seconds. In the time it took you to read to this point, someone got divorced.
- Those who marry when between the ages of 20 to 24 have the highest rate of divorce. You've probably heard people say that 50% of all marriages end in divorce. And while this is kind of accurate, it's also a bit misleading. As it turns out, age plays a big role in determining a marriage's fate. Those who marry when between the ages of 20 to 24 have the highest rate of divorce. These couples are nearly twice as likely to get divorced as those who get married between the ages of 25 to 29 years old.
- The divorce rate for a third marriage is 73%. When it comes to marriage, practice doesn't make perfect. In fact, it only seems to make you worse. That's why the divorce rate continues to get higher for each additional marriage. Nearly 3 out of every 4 adults who are on their third marriage end up divorced again.
- Nevada boasts the highest divorce rate (not to be confused with Texas that has the highest volume of divorces). Maybe it's because of all the casinos, or maybe it's because the desert is depressing. Whatever the reason, the fact remains that Nevada holds the dubious distinction of the state with the highest divorce rate. 9.1 per 1000 population get divorced. The state with the lowest divorce rate? Massachusetts at 2.1 per 1000 population.
- Adults who didn't attend college and have a low household income are more likely to be divorced. Non-college educated couples are nearly 20% more likely to get divorced within the first 10 years of marriage than college-educated couples. Lower-income marriages just tend to be more unstable.
- Christian couples have the same divorce rate as the national average. It seems there's little truth to the saying "The family that prays together stays together." Protestant Christian couples are just as likely to get divorced as their secular counterparts. In fact, Atheists have a much lower divorce rate than Christians.
- Arkansas has the highest rate of individuals married 3 or more times. Men and women in Arkansas are twice as likely to be married 3 or more times than the national average.
