Divorce Statistics and Studies Blog

Welcome to the Divorce Statistics and Studies Blog

This site continues, but does not duplicate, the work of the Divorce Statistics Collection, gathering divorce statistics, and citations and abstracts of studies on the incidence, causes and effects of divorce. If you have information that is not here nor on the Divorce Statistics Collection, please send it in, using the comments section.
To get complete information and citations, you should also review the research pages at the Howard Center, Smart Marriages, the Bristol Community Family Trust, the National Healthy Marriage Resource Center, RAND, the National Center for Policy Analysis, and the Divorce Statistics Collection’s page on your topic. The main pages or sub-sites within the Divorce Statistics Collection are:

Massachusetts now has lowest divorce rate, 0.1%, Nevada highest at 0.42%

The CDC's National Center for Health Statistics released the latest state by state divorce rates as part of "Divorce Rates by State: 1990, 1995, and 1999-2021". 

Massachusetts had one divorce per 1,000 population in 2020 and 2021, the nation's lowest divorce rate for both years. Nevada had 4.2 in 2021 but only 3.0 in 2020, its lowest rate this century and probably for most of the last century, too. Wyoming led the nation in 2020 with 3.8.

These are per capita rates, i.e., compared to the entire population of all ages, whether married or not. These rates make more sense if you double them, because there are two people in every divorce. So the nationwide rate of "2.5 per 1,000" means 0.5% of us got divorced in 2021. Likewise, 1.0 means that Massachusetts actually saw 0.2% of the population get divorced each year.

 

2020 Divorce Rate Lowest Since 1964, 2021 Second-Lowest

The U.S.'s per capita divorce rate was 2.3 per thousand in 2020 and 2.5 per thousand in 2021, the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics reports.  (That's how far behind the reporting of these numbers typically runs -- about 18 months.)

2.3 is the lowest per capita rate since 1964 -- also lower than the rate from 1942 to 1953.

2021's 2.5 is the same per capita rate as in 1965 and 1966, and the lowest rate since then except for 2020. 

These are per capita rates, i.e., compared to the entire population of all ages, whether married or not. These rates make more sense if you double them, because there are two people in every divorce. So "2.5 per 1,000" means 0.5% of us got divorced in 2021.

This all was computed without any information from California, Hawaii, Indiana, Minnesota, or New Mexico; those states did not count their divorces for 2017 through 2021.

See also:

• 144 years of marriage and divorce in 1 chart, by Randy Olson
• Divorce Rates by State: 1990, 1995, and 1999-2021
• Chart of the per capita rates and absolute numbers of U.S. Marriages and Divorces, 1900-2012.

Married Men and Women Still Have Lowest Death Rates

Mortality Among Adults Aged 25 and Over by Marital Status: United States, 2010–2017

By Sally C. Curtin, M.A., and Betzaida Tejada-Vera, M.S., Division of Vital Statistics, National Center for Health Statistics, CDC

New York State Divorce Rates

 9 Cities In New York That You're Most Likely To Get  Divorced In 

(And many more facts about New York's divorce rates)

WBX 950, March 2, 2022

Sweeping claim based on virtually nothing: "US Divorce Rates Skyrocket Amid COVID"

"Divorce rates have spiked in the U.S. during the coronavirus pandemic as couples have been stuck at home for months. The number of people looking for divorces was 34 percent higher from March through June compared to 2019, according to new data collected [by] Legal Templates, a company that provides legal documents. ... The data showed that 31 percent of the couples admitted lockdown has caused irreparable damage to their relationships."

"US divorce rates skyrocket amid COVID-19 pandemic"

By Elizabeth Rosner in the New York Post.

 

(To be fair to the author, it wouldn't be surprising if the headline, the lyin' first line, and the decision to run a story based on the "Legal Templates" peddlers' cheesy press release, were all the handiwork of editors.)

 

And that 31%? They were among those responding to a survey sent to the "My Ex Back Coach" mailing list. (Which was later updated and conclusively found that the lockdown had no effect on the respondents' relationships -- see further down.)

"These couples surveyed were married at the time the survey was conducted.
The survey was conducted April 25, 2020.
The survey/poll asked the following question:
How has the COVID-19 lock-down affected your relationship? Get your ex back with Coach Lee's Emergency Breakup Kit!

The following options were provided:

• The lock down has not changed my relationship.
• The lock down has harmed my relationship.
• The lock down has been good for my relationship." 

So wait . . . ONLY 31% of people who were on the "My Ex Back" mailing list, and chose to answer a survey from it, said the lockdown had harmed their relationships???!!! I guess most of the rest of them answered "no change" because their breakups happened before COVID. Also, we were only six weeks into the lockdown then. And I can't even begin to ponder the immense statistical implications of the survey's designers not knowing how to spell the main subject of their survey, the lockdown, but misspelling it TWO DIFFERENT WAYS!

And let's pause to flag a flagrant misuse of language in this and many other writings about divorce: The "My Ex Back" survey was not answered by "couples," it was answered by individuals. 

"My Ex Back" re-ran the survey in January, 2021, and the results (less than half of which are from the U.S.) seem pretty conclusive: The pandemic had had no effect on the great majority of the respondents' relationships: 

"The following are the results of a survey/poll sent to members of our mailing list. These couples surveyed were married as of January 19, 2021. The survey/poll asked the following question: 'Has the lockdown and other changes to life from the COVID-19 pandemic affected your marriage relationship?' The following options were provided:

Get your ex back with Coach Lee's Emergency Breakup Kit!

• • The lock down has not changed my marriage.
  • The lock down has harmed my marriage.
  • The lock down has been good for my marriage.

2429 people responded to this survey conducted January 19, 2021 to our email list. Of the 2429 respondents:

• • 17% answered that the pandemic had been good for their marriage
  • 72% answered that the pandemic had not changed their marriage
  • 11% answered that the pandemic had harmed their marriage"

The 2021 results get more interesting:

"Women were more likely to say their marriage had improved than men.
Men were more likely to say that their marriage had become worse.
21% of women said that their marriage had improved compared to 14% of men.
15% of men said that their marriage was worse compared to 7% of women."

Respondents were also asked if they were considering divorce as of January 19, 2021. Of the respondents, 19.98% (284) said that they were considering divorce. This number is down 29% from our 2019 survey of 1277 married couples where 357 or 28% responded that they were considering divorce.

Demographics of Respondents:

• 48.7% of respondents were from the United States.
• 21.4% of respondents were from the United Kingdom
• 5.8% of respondents were from India
• 5.2% Canada
• 4.6% Philippines

Sex of Respondents:

• 54% female
• 46% male

Age of Respondents:

• 18-24 years 10.6%
• 25-34 years 23.7%
• 35-44 years 37.5%
• 45-54 years 14.9%
• 55-64 years 9.1%
• 65+ years 4.2%

"It appears that some married couples experienced trauma induced limerence from the uncertainty and fear of the lockdowns of 2020-2021 and that such a spark fueled them to work out their issues and improve their marriage relationship."

 Limerence? It's nice to learn a new word, but it's a ridiculously overblown claim.

Limerence is a mental state of profound romantic infatuation, first defined in the 1970s by the psychologist Dorothy Tennov. It is characterised by an initial period of elation and intense emotional arousal that can progress to an involuntary, obsessive craving for another person.

-- From "Living with Limerence" by "Dr. Limerence". Oh. Uh, I can't wait to see what ads I start seeing after visiting Coach Ex-Back and Dr. Limerence. But it fairly matches the straight dictionary definition.

CIA Divorce Rate is Unknown, Even to the CIA. (But it sucks all around.)

Heartbreaking.

CIA divorces: The secrecy when spies split

 

By Ian Shapira in The Washington Post

World's Lowest Divorce Rates -- Guatemala Leads With One-Ninth the U.S. Rate

Countries with the lowest divorce rates worldwide as of 2018 (divorces per 1,000 population)

European Countries' 2019 Per Capita Divorce Rates: Significantly Lower Than U.S., Except in L-Countries

Only three countries, whose names begin with L, had higher rates (3.1 divorces per 1,000 population) than the U.S. (2.7). Most countries were near or below the low end of the range of U.S. states' divorce rates.

 

Divorce rates in Europe in 2019, by country (per 1,000 inhabitants)

U.S. Divorce Rate Down Again: 0.27%

This is the lowest per capita rate since 1967 -- also lower than the rate from 1944 to 1948 -- and the lowest absolute number of divorces -- 746,971 -- since 1970.*

The CDC's National Center for Health Statistics has released these 2019 divorce and marriage numbers in "National marriage and divorce rate trends for 2000-2019."

(That's how far behind the reporting of these numbers typically runs -- about 18 months.)

 These are per capita rates, i.e., compared to the entire population of all ages, whether married or not. These rates make more sense if you double them, because there are two people in every divorce. So "2.7 per 1,000" means 0.27% divorces-per-capita, but it means 0.54% of us got divorced in 2019.

This all was computed without any information from California, Hawaii, Indiana, Minnesota, or New Mexico; those states did not count their divorces for 2019.

___ 

* (Source: see "U.S. divorce and marriage totals and rates, 1867 to 2011".)

See also:

• 144 years of marriage and divorce in 1 chart, by Randy Olson

• 2019 State-By-State Divorce Rates Released: Nevada 0.84%, Illinois 0.26%

• Chart of the per capita rates and absolute numbers of U.S. Marriages and Divorces, 1900-2012.

U.S. divorce and marriage totals and rates, 1867 to 2011

This is the data set compiled by Randy Olson for his "144 years of marriage and divorce in 1 chart." 

Year	Marriages	Divorces	Population	Marriages Per 1000	Divorces Per 1000
1867	357,000	1,0000	3697,0000	9.7	0.3
1868	345,000	1,0000	37885,000	9.1	0.3
1869	348,000	11,000	3887,0000	9	0.3
1870	352,000	11,000	39905,000	8.8	0.3
1871	359,000	12,000	4101,0000	8.8	0.3
1872	378,000	12,000	42066,000	9	0.3
1873	386,000	13,000	43225,000	8.9	0.3
1874	385,000	14,000	44429,000	8.7	0.3
1875	409,000	14,000	45492,000	9	0.3
1876	405,000	15,000	46459,000	8.7	0.3
1877	411,000	16,000	474,00000	8.7	0.3
1878	423,000	16,000	48319,000	8.8	0.3
1879	438,000	17,000	49264,000	8.9	0.3
1880	453,000	2,0000	50262,000	9	0.4
1881	464,000	21,000	51466,000	9	0.4
1882	484,000	22,000	52893,000	9.2	0.4
1883	501,000	23,000	54435,000	9.2	0.4
1884	485,000	23,000	55826,000	8.7	0.4
1885	507,000	23,000	57128,000	8.9	0.4
1886	534,000	26,000	58258,000	9.2	0.4
1887	513,000	28,000	59357,000	8.6	0.5
1888	535,000	29,000	60614,000	8.8	0.5
1889	563,000	32,000	61893,000	9.1	0.5
1890	57,0000	33,000	63056,000	9	0.5
1891	592,000	36,000	64432,000	9.2	0.6
1892	601,000	37,000	6592,0000	9.1	0.6
1893	601,000	37,000	6747,0000	8.9	0.5
1894	588,000	38,000	6891,0000	8.5	0.6
1895	62,0000	4,0000	70076,000	8.8	0.6
1896	635,000	43,000	71188,000	8.9	0.6
1897	643,000	45,000	72441,000	8.9	0.6
1898	647,000	48,000	736,00000	8.8	0.7
1899	673,000	51,000	74793,000	9	0.7
1900	709,000	56,000	76094,000	9.3	0.7
1901	742,000	61,000	77584,000	9.6	0.8
1902	776,000	61,000	79163,000	9.8	0.8
1903	818,000	65,000	80632,000	10.1	0.8
1904	815,000	66,000	82166,000	9.9	0.8
1905	842,000	68,000	83822,000	10	0.8
1906	895,000	72,000	8545,0000	10.5	0.8
1907	937,000	77,000	87008,000	10.8	0.9
1908	857,000	77,000	8871,0000	9.7	0.9
1909	897,000	8,0000	9049,0000	9.9	0.9
1910	948,000	83,000	92407,000	10.3	0.9
1911	955,000	89,000	93863,000	10.2	0.9
1912	1005,000	94,000	95335,000	10.5	1
1913	1021,000	91,000	97225,000	10.5	0.9
1914	1025,000	101,000	99111,000	10.3	1
1915	1008,000	104,000	100546,000	10	1
1916	1076,000	114,000	101961,000	10.6	1.1
1917	1144,000	122,000	103414,000	11.1	1.2
1918	1,000,000	116,000	10455,0000	9.6	1.1
1919	115,0000	142,000	105063,000	10.9	1.4
1920	1274,000	171,000	106461,000	12	1.6
1921	1164,000	16,0000	108538,000	10.7	1.5
1922	1134,000	149,000	110049,000	10.3	1.4
1923	123,0000	165,000	111947,000	11	1.5
1924	1185,000	171,000	114109,000	10.4	1.5
1925	1188,000	175,000	115829,000	10.3	1.5
1926	1203,000	185,000	117397,000	10.2	1.6
1927	1201,000	196,000	119035,000	10.1	1.6
1928	1182,000	2,00000	120509,000	9.8	1.7
1929	1233,000	206,000	121878,000	10.1	1.7
1930	1127,000	196,000	123188,000	9.1	1.6
1931	1061,000	188,000	124149,000	8.5	1.5
1932	982,000	164,000	124949,000	7.9	1.3
1933	1098,000	165,000	12569,0000	8.7	1.3
1934	1302,000	204,000	126485,000	10.3	1.6
1935	1327,000	218,000	127362,000	10.4	1.7
1936	1369,000	236,000	128181,000	10.7	1.8
1937	1451,000	249,000	128961,000	11.3	1.9
1938	1331,000	244,000	129969,000	10.2	1.9
1939	1404,000	251,000	131028,000	10.7	1.9
1940	1596,000	264,000	132122,000	12.1	2
1941	1696,000	293,000	133402,000	12.7	2.2
1942	1772,000	321,000	13486,0000	13.1	2.4
1943	1577,000	359,000	136739,000	11.5	2.6
1944	1452,000	4,00000	138397,000	10.5	2.9
1945	1613,000	485,000	139928,000	11.5	3.5
1946	2291,000	61,0000	141389,000	16.2	4.3
1947	1992,000	483,000	144126,000	13.8	3.4
1948	1811,000	408,000	146631,000	12.4	2.8
1949	158,0000	397,000	149188,000	10.6	2.7
1950	1667,000	385,000	151684,000	11	2.5
1951	1595,000	381,000	154287,000	10.3	2.5
1952	1539,000	392,000	156954,000	9.8	2.5
1953	1546,000	39,0000	159565,000	9.7	2.4
1954	149,0000	379,000	162391,000	9.2	2.3
1955	1531,000	377,000	165275,000	9.3	2.3
1956	1585,000	382,000	168221,000	9.4	2.3
1957	1518,000	381,000	171274,000	8.9	2.2
1958	1451,000	368,000	174141,000	8.3	2.1
1959	1494,000	395,000	17713,0000	8.4	2.2
1960	1523,000	393,000	18076,0000	8.4	2.2
1961	1548,000	414,000	183742,000	8.4	2.3
1962	1577,000	413,000	18659,0000	8.5	2.2
1963	1654,000	428,000	1893,00000	8.7	2.3
1964	1725,000	45,0000	191927,000	9	2.3
1965	18,00000	479,000	194347,000	9.3	2.5
1966	1857,000	499,000	196599,000	9.4	2.5
1967	1927,000	523,000	198752,000	9.7	2.6
1968	2069,000	584,000	200745,000	10.3	2.9
1969	2145,000	639,000	202736,000	10.6	3.2
1970	2185802	708,000	205089,000	10.7	3.5
1971	2190481	773,000	207692,000	10.5	3.7
1972	2282154	845,000	209924,000	10.9	4
1973	2284108	915,000	211939,000	10.8	4.3
1974	2245929	983931	213898,000	10.5	4.6
1975	2159810	1036709	215981,000	10	4.8
1976	2159051	1090430	218086,000	9.9	5
1977	2180861	1101445	220289,000	9.9	5
1978	2293079	1135408	222629,000	10.3	5.1
1979	2341102	1193062	225106,000	10.4	5.3
1980	2413896	1184175	227726,000	10.6	5.2
1981	2438085	1219042	23,0008,000	10.6	5.3
1982			232218,000
1983			234333,000
1984	2482137	1181970	236394,000	10.5	5
1985	2408911	1192530	238506,000	10.1	5
1986	2406830	1179347	240683,000	10	4.9
1987	2404146	1165646	242843,000	9.9	4.8
1988	2377092	1151787	245061,000	9.7	4.7
1989	2399654	1162719	247387,000	9.7	4.7
1990	2451774	1175851	250181,000	9.8	4.7
1991	2383182	1191591	25353,0000	9.4	4.7
1992	2389375	1233226	256922,000	9.3	4.8
1993	2342538	1197297	260282,000	9	4.6
1994	2397441	1211893	263455,000	9.1	4.6
1995			266588,000
1996			269714,000
1997	2384,000	1163,000	272958,000	8.7	4.3
1998	2244,000	1135,000	276154,000	8.1	4.1
1999	2358,000	1145245	279328,000	8.4	4.1
2,000	2315,000	944,000	282398,000	8.2	3.3
2001	2326,000	94,0000	285225,000	8.2	3.3
2002	229,0000	955,000	287955,000	8	3.3
2003	2245,000	927,000	290626,000	7.7	3.2
2004	2279,000	879,000	293262,000	7.8	3
2005	2249,000	847,000	295993,000	7.6	2.9
2006	2193,000	872,000	298818,000	7.3	2.9
2007	2197,000	856,000	301696,000	7.3	2.8
2008	2157,000	844,000	304543,000	7.1	2.8
2009	208,0000	84,0000	30724,0000	6.8	2.7
2010	2096,000	872,000	309776,000	6.8	2.8
2011	2118,000	877,000	312034,000	6.8	2.8