Divorce Statistics and Studies Blog

Divorce after child dies

People often ask us about statistics on parents getting divorced after a child dies. Prof. Rick Froman of John Brown University in Arkansas sent me an article refuting the popular belief that divorce is more likely, or even inevitable, in that situation. Here are links to where you can download that article and others on the topic by the same authors.

Regular churchgoers have less divorce, less violence, worse divorces

Research by Bowling Green State University
professors Kenneth Pargament and Annette Mahoney, reported in an April 10, 2007 lecture by them and in a story in the Toledo Blade about the lecture, shows that regular churchgoers have significantly less divorce and far less domestic violence than other people. But when they get divorced, they react even  more poorly to it than other people do.

See the continuation for the full story, from Smart Marriages listserv posting "Community Marriage Policies | Church Study | Interracial Marriages - 4/15/07 '

Military divorce up only gradually since '01, study says

Courtesy of Mary French at Army Magazine,

The full study, titled  “Families Under Stress: An Assessment of Data, Theory, and Research on Marriage and Divorce in the Military,” is available at for purchase on RAND's web site.

April 12, 2007

 

RAND STUDY FINDS DIVORCE AMONG SOLDIERS HAS NOT SPIKED HIGHER
DESPITE STRESS CREATED BY BATTLEFIELD DEPLOYMENTS

Despite greatly increased stress on the U.S. armed forces since the start of military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, divorce rates among military families have increased only gradually, according to a RAND Corporation study issued today.

After several years of decline, marital dissolutions among military members began increasing in 2001, according to a study by the nonprofit research organization that analyzed records from about 6 million men and women who served in the United States military during the past 10 years.

The steady increase in divorce, separations and annulments increased the rate of military breakups to about 3 percent annually in 2005 -- the same level observed in 1996, when soldiers did not routinely face the battlefield deployments that are common today.

Researchers examined overall trends in the breakup of military marriages and the specific effects of deployment to Iraq and Afghanistan. Contrary to expectations, married service members who had been deployed were generally less likely to end their marriages than those who had not been deployed, and longer deployments were associated with greater reductions in risk.

Long-term economic outcomes for divorced women

Divorce financial planner Carol Ann Wilson's DivorceTIPS blog reviews several late-1980s studies of how men and women fared in divorces and afterwards.

Cohabitation, Marriage and Divorce: "Sliding Versus Deciding"

Here's a link to the official abstract of the landmark "Sliding Versus Deciding" study that examines exactly how cohabitation does and does not affect marital commitment levels and divorce rates, sorting out causation from correlation. The abstract also has links to the full article, although that access requires a subscription.
Link: Family Relations, Volume 55 Issue 4 Page 499 - October 2006 (Article Abstract).
Citation: Scott M. Stanley, Galena Kline Rhoades, Howard J. Markman (2006)    
        Sliding Versus Deciding: Inertia and the Premarital Cohabitation Effect*    
    Family Relations 55 (4), 499–509.

Chinese breakups skyrocket along with individualism

Chinese Slough Off Old Barriers to Divorce

Breakups Skyrocket Alongside An Embrace of Individualism

Indonesia: "Changing views spur divorce rate"

No real solid numbers on increased divorce rate, just absolute numbers from courts, and a prediction. And it says 62% are caused by the family's economic condition, 62% by infidelity.

Czechs have 2/3 divorce rate; other EU nations also have high rates

Two-thirds of Czech marriages divorce - EU statistics
The Monitor
[Bloggermeister's note: You may want to take these reported divorce rates with a grain of salt. I would very much welcome informed comments in the "Comments" section, either vouching for or debunking them. But these countries' annual per capita divorce rates in 1999, which we used in our study on US and EU divorce rates, were considerably lower than the US's. However, US projected lifetime divorce rates are between 40 and 45 percent.]
Brussels, Jan 9 (CTK) - Only one-third of married couples do not divorce in
the 10-million Czech Republic, which is almost the lowest figure in the EU,
according to the statistics of Eurostat EU´s agency released to CTK.

Out of 100 Czech marriages, 67 divorce on average, while the EU average is
some 40 divorces per 100 couples, the statistics says.

Along with Belgians and Estonians, Czechs divorce most frequently compared
to other EU members states.

The situation in Belgium with almost the same number of inhabitants as the
Czech Republic is even worse as three-fourths of Belgian marriages end in
divorce.

China's divorce rate has been overstated by 100%

China admits goofing divorce statistics
EarthTimes.org  -- 27 Jan 2007

Beijing, Jan 27 (DPA) China has halved its divorce rate after statisticians
admitted that they had counted the number of people and not the number of
divorces in the annual figure, state media said Friday.

The official divorce rate is likely to drop from 2.76 per 1,000 in 2005 to
about 1.3 per 1,000 last year, the official China Daily newspaper said.

The National Bureau of Statistics previously calculated the rate based on
the number of divorcees, making the level of divorce in China appear as high
as that in some Western nations.

The Demographics of Divorce-United States

Robert Hughes, Jr., Ph.D., The Demographics of Divorce -- United States and Missouri.

This clearly-written article explains what the different divorce rates do and don't mean, and suggests some less "newsy" but more substantial stats that indicate what the "true" divorce rate may be. It's an excellent demystification of divorce rates nationwide, but also contains a demographic overview of divorce in Missouri.