Divorce Statistics and Studies Blog

Divorced, unremarried population rising in 49 states - Bloomberg state rankings

(Not including remarrieds, and by state of current residence, not place of divorce) From:

"Bloomberg Best (and Worst) - Biggest Increase in Divorce - States: Forty-nine states, led by Maine, have a higher percentage of divorced residents now than in 2007"

[extra letter "t" in state names when table pasted in, left because meaning still clear]

Rank	State	Change in divorce rate (percentage points)	Divorced 2012	Divorced 2007
16	Alabamat	0.9	12.7%	11.8%
16	Alaskat	0.9	12.4	11.5
45	Arizonat	0.1	12.5	12.4
5	Arkansast	1.5	13.3	11.8
40	Californiat	0.3	9.8	9.5
45	Coloradot	0.1	12.4	12.3
13	Connecticutt	1.0	10.6	9.6
5	Delawaret	1.5	11.8	10.3
51	District of Columbiat	-0.5	9.2	9.7
16	Floridat	0.9	13.2	12.3
48	Georgiat	0.0	11.4	11.4
43	Hawaiit	0.2	9.5	9.3
9	Idahot	1.1	12.5	11.4
35	Illinoist	0.5	10.0	9.5
33	Indianat	0.6	12.7	12.1
4	Iowat	1.6	11.4	9.8
9	Kansast	1.1	12.2	11.1
24	Kentuckyt	0.7	13.2	12.5
7	Louisianat	1.3	12.3	11.0
1	Mainet	1.8	14.2	12.4
24	Marylandt	0.7	10.1	9.4
13	Massachusettst	1.0	10.1	9.1
24	Michigant	0.7	11.8	11.1
24	Minnesotat	0.7	10.2	9.5
8	Mississippit	1.2	11.9	10.7
22	Missourit	0.8	12.5	11.7
45	Montanat	0.1	12.3	12.2
24	Nebraskat	0.7	10.4	9.7
9	Nevadat	1.1	14.6	13.5
16	New Hampshiret	0.9	12.3	11.4
37	New Jerseyt	0.4	8.6	8.2
37	New Mexicot	0.4	13.1	12.7
33	New Yorkt	0.6	8.8	8.2
24	North Carolinat	0.7	10.8	10.1
2	North Dakotat	1.7	9.7	8.0
16	Ohiot	0.9	12.5	11.6
24	Oklahomat	0.7	13.5	12.8
22	Oregont	0.8	13.4	12.6
40	Pennsylvaniat	0.3	9.5	9.2
16	Rhode Islandt	0.9	11.5	10.6
24	South Carolinat	0.7	10.7	10.0
9	South Dakotat	1.1	11.0	9.9
40	Tennesseet	0.3	13.0	12.7
37	Texast	0.4	11.0	10.6
35	Utaht	0.5	9.5	9.0
48	Vermontt	0.0	12.1	12.1
24	Virginiat	0.7	10.2	9.5
43	Washingtont	0.2	12.3	12.1
2	West Virginiat	1.7	13.3	11.6
13	Wisconsint	1.0	11.0	10.0
50	Wyomingt	-0.2	12.8	13.0

State rankings by percentage of divorced residents (not including remarrieds)

This ranking by Bloomberg is based on census data (published in 2012), which counts people in their second, third marriages etc. as "married" rather than divorced. It also looks at the state of current residence, not where the divorce happened. 

Pasting the table in, an extra "t" appeared in the states' names, but I'm leaving it in as it doesn't interfere with the meaning.

Rank	State	Divorced	Married	Separated
1	Nevadat	14.6%	45.6%	2.4%
2	Mainet	14.2	50.8	1.2
3	Oklahomat	13.5	50.1	2.2
4	Oregont	13.4	49.0	1.9
5	Arkansast	13.3	50.5	2.3
5	West Virginiat	13.3	49.9	1.5
7	Floridat	13.2	46.0	2.5
7	Kentuckyt	13.2	50.1	2.2
9	New Mexicot	13.1	46.1	1.8
10	Tennesseet	13.0	49.1	2.3
11	Wyomingt	12.8	52.9	1.8
12	Alabamat	12.7	48.5	2.5
12	Indianat	12.7	49.8	1.4
14	Arizonat	12.5	47.3	2.0
14	Idahot	12.5	55.0	1.3
14	Missourit	12.5	49.1	2.0
14	Ohiot	12.5	48.0	1.8
18	Alaskat	12.4	47.7	2.0
18	Coloradot	12.4	50.6	1.7
20	Louisianat	12.3	43.7	2.9
20	Montanat	12.3	52.7	1.3
20	New Hampshiret	12.3	51.4	1.3
20	Washingtont	12.3	50.5	1.7
24	Kansast	12.2	52.2	1.6
25	Vermontt	12.1	49.8	1.4
26	Mississippit	11.9	44.3	3.2
27	Delawaret	11.8	47.4	2.0
27	Michigant	11.8	48.0	1.5
29	Rhode Islandt	11.5	44.8	1.8
30	Georgiat	11.4	47.1	2.6
30	Iowat	11.4	52.7	1.3
32	South Dakotat	11.0	50.9	1.3
32	Texast	11.0	49.4	2.8
32	Wisconsint	11.0	50.8	1.2
35	North Carolinat	10.8	49.1	3.2
36	South Carolinat	10.7	47.3	3.4
37	Connecticutt	10.6	48.2	1.4
38	Nebraskat	10.4	52.8	1.2
39	Minnesotat	10.2	52.4	1.1
39	Virginiat	10.2	50.1	2.4
41	Marylandt	10.1	46.7	2.6
41	Massachusettst	10.1	46.1	2.0
43	Illinoist	10.0	47.6	1.8
44	Californiat	9.8	46.1	2.4
45	North Dakotat	9.7	51.9	0.9
46	Hawaiit	9.5	49.5	1.5
46	Pennsylvaniat	9.5	48.1	2.2
46	Utaht	9.5	55.7	1.7
49	District of C…t	9.2	26.7	2.1
50	New Yorkt	8.8	44.2	2.8
51	New Jerseyt	8.6	49.2	2.0

Remarriage after divorce drops 40% in 20 years, cohabitation doubles, both still breakup-prone, hard on kids

A USA Today feature story and an American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers press release bring together many new insights from several studies showing fundamental changes in post-divorce cohabitation, remarriage, re-divorce, and stepfamily dynamics. Here are the most exciting excerpts, grouped by topic:

REMARRIAGE

In 2011, just 29 of every 1,000 divorced or widowed Americans remarried, down from 50 per 1,000 in 1990

RE-DIVORCE

Some couples worry about the odds of a successful remarriage, but long-term data is relatively non-existent because of federal cutbacks that stopped data collection. "There is no good, recent data on divorce among remarried couples that I know of," says marriage researcher Andrew Cherlin of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. 

However, new research does suggest those who have been divorced once are less likely to stay in an unsatisfying marriage a second time. "It's not that the couples are less happy with each other and it's not that they're fighting more than first-married couples," says psychologist Sarah Whitton of the University of Cincinnati. "It seems that if a relationship starts deteriorating, they're quicker to move towards divorce." Her study of 1,931 married individuals was published this spring in the Journal of Marriage and Family. ...

STEPFAMILIES

"In the first marriage, the couple has time alone to set up their own culture — the way they do things. But in the second marriage, you have a single parent who has been living alone with his or her children and they are deeply, deeply bonded and have a culture of their own. The stepparent walks into that and doesn't know the first thing about it. 

"The American delusion is you can pop in a new parent like a replacement figure and you have a new first marriage. You actually have a very different marriage ..."

COHABITATION

"Cohabiting isn't going to make it easier," Olson says. "In many ways, it makes it more complicated. ... It doesn't signal to the kids 'this is permanent.' " 

Between 1990 and 2012, the percentage of unmarried couples living together more than doubled, from 5.1% to 11.3%. 

 37% of cohabiters have been married before.

Remarriage rate declining as more opt for cohabitation -- AAML

Based on USA Today story with same title, 9/12/13

Divorce rate underestimated? Has doubled for over-35s, says "Breaking Up Is Hard To Count" study.

Kennedy and Ruggles's study is tremendously important even if it is not actually disagreeing with earlier data or studies, but just looking at the same data in a different way. If I understand correctly from the abstract, they are saying that divorce at ages 35 and over has doubled from 1990 to 2008. Maybe both that, and the current data showing steady but miniscule annual declines in the gross per capita divorce rate, could both be true, since young marriage has steadily declined and older marriage has steadily risen.

 

"... Vital statistics and retrospective survey data on divorce after 1990 underestimate recent marital instability. These flawed data have led some analysts to conclude that divorce has been stable or declining for the past three decades. Using new data from the American Community Survey and controlling for changes in the age composition of the married population, we conclude that there was actually a substantial increase in age-standardized divorce rates between 1990 and 2008. Divorce rates have doubled over the past two decades among persons over age 35. Among the youngest couples, however, divorce rates are stable or declining. If current trends continue, overall age-standardized divorce rates could level off or even decline over the next few decades. We argue that the leveling of divorce among persons born since 1980 probably reflects the increasing selectivity of marriage."

 

Sheela Kennedy and Steven Ruggles, "Breaking Up Is Hard to Count: The Rise of Divorce in the United States, 1980–2010", Demography, January 2014.

 

 

Gay and straight divorce rates in Australia's Capital Territory

The headline is probably inaccurate, as the article itself points out. Or rather, it's probably somewhat accurate, but we don't have enough information to be sure. It's based on the "current weddings to divorces" ratio, and the numbers for straight divorces include people married before gay civil unions were available.

Gay divorce rate lower than for straight couples

9 News National, February 16, 2014

 

 

Same-sex divorce rate lower than heterosexual couples

 

February 16, 2014, By Ewa Kretowicz, Canberra Times.

English-Welsh divorce stats for 2012 and back to 1932 released

The Office for National Statistics has published its statistical bulletin for divorces in England and Wales in 2012. It shows divorce rates per-married couple rising from 1973 to 1993, then falling until a low point in 2009,then rising slightly and apparently fluctuating just slightly higher since then, at points between their 1977 and 1978 levels.

The report includes links to detailed excel tables of exact divorce and marriage numbers from 1932 to 2012, and divorce rates per-married-couple from 1972 to 2012, shown below, and many other informative tables on age, marriage duration, cohort analyses (the best way to determine an actual lifetime probability of divorce), previous marriages, and which sex files for the divorce (females around two-thirds of the time; both file jointly less than 0.2% of the time).

• Divorce rates: In 2012, 10.8 people divorced per thousand married population, a decrease of 19% compared with 13.3 in 2002.
• Age at divorce: The number of divorces in 2012 was highest among men and women aged 40 to 44.
• Duration of marriage: The median duration of marriage for divorces granted in 2012 was 11.5 years, which was the same as in 2011. This is an increase from 11.1 years in 2002.
• Marital status before marriage: In 2012, 19% of men and women divorcing had their previous marriage end in divorce.
• Children of divorced couples: Almost half (48%) of couples divorcing in 2012 had at least one child aged under 16 living in the family.
• 60% of marriages are expected to survive to the 20th anniversary.
• The average marriage is expected to last for 32 years.

The number of divorces in England and Wales in 2012 was 118,140, an increase of 0.5% since 2011, when there were 117,558 ... [it] declined between 2003 and 2009 from 153,065 to 113,949 followed by a 4.9% increase in 2010 [and] has remained relatively stable since 2010, fluctuating just below the number recorded in 2010."

(Those are absolute numbers, unlike the US ones that are most often reported in per-capita terms. US per-capita rates have often fallen while absolute numbers rise, due to population growth.)

From: "REPORT REVEALS THAT NUMBER OF DIVORCES IN ENGLAND AND WALES INCREASED IN 2012",  BY MATTHIAS MUELLER - 06 FEBRUARY 2014 on www.familylaw.co.uk

CIting original source: "Divorces in England and Wales, 2012", Statistical Bulletin, Office for National Statistics, which considers any change from 2011 to 2012 inconclusive. It mentions competing theories on the effect of economic recessions on divorce, and says it is too early to tell if either is correct. 

Divorce rates1 by sex, 1972-2012
England and Wales
Year	Divorces per thousand married males	Divorces per thousand married females
1972 9.5 9.4 1973	8.4	8.4
1974	9.0	9.0
1975	9.6	9.6
1976	10.1	10.1
1977	10.4	10.3
1978	11.6	11.6
1979	11.2	11.2
1980	12.0	12.0
1981	11.9	11.9
1982	12.1	12.0
1983	12.2	12.2
1984	12.0	12.0
1985	13.4	13.3
1986	12.9	12.8
1987	12.7	12.6
1988	12.9	12.8
1989	12.8	12.7
1990	13.1	12.9
1991	13.6	13.4
1992	13.9	13.6
1993	14.3	14.1
1994	13.8	13.6
1995	13.7	13.5
1996	13.9	13.7
1997	13.1	12.9
1998	13.0	12.9
1999	13.0	12.9
2000	12.7	12.6
2001	13.0	12.9
2002	13.4	13.3
2003	13.9	13.9
2004	14.0	13.9
2005	12.9	12.9
2006	12.1	12.1
2007	11.8	11.8
2008	11.2	11.3
2009	10.5	10.6
2010	11.0	11.1
2011	10.8	10.8
2012	10.8	10.9

FN 1. Divorce rates for 2002-2010 are calculated using marital status population estimates based on the 2001 Census. Revisions to these estimates to take account of the 2011 Census are not currently planned. Divorce rates for 2011 and 2012 are based on estimated 2011 marital status population estimates which use the mid-2011 population estimates based on the 2011 Census and the marital status distribution from the 2008-based marital status population projections for 2011. Consequently comparisons between rates for 2002-2010 and 2011-2012 should be treated with caution due to the different census bases used. For more information see the section of the Statistical Bulletin titled ‘Availability of Population Estimates by Marital Status and the Calculation of Divorce Rates for 2011 and 2012’.

 

Number of divorces by age at divorce, 2012
England and Wales
Source: Office for National Statistics
AGE	Husband	Wife
Under 20	2	25
20–24	835	2,207
25–29	6,364	10,982
30–34	14,835	18,041
35–39	18,804	19,840
40–44	22,568	22,506
45–49	21,114	19,502
50–54	15,022	12,546
55–59	8,893	6,465
60 and over	9,703	6,026

Number of marriages and divorces, 1932–2012
England and Wales
Year	Divorces	Marriages
1932	3,894	307,184
1933	4,042	318,191
1934	4,287	342,307
1935	4,069	349,536
1936	5,146	354,644
1937	4,886	359,160
1938	6,250	361,768
1939	8,254	439,694
1940	7,755	470,549
1941	6,368	388,921
1942	7,618	369,744
1943	10,012	296,432
1944	12,312	302,714
1945	15,634	397,626
1946	29,829	385,606
1947	60,254	401,210
1948	43,698	396,891
1949	34,856	375,041
1950	30,870	358,490
1951	28,767	360,624
1952	33,922	349,308
1953	30,326	344,998
1954	28,027	341,731
1955	26,816	357,918
1956	26,265	352,944
1957	23,785	346,903
1958	22,654	339,913
1959	24,286	340,126
1960	23,868	343,614
1961	25,394	346,678
1962	28,935	347,732
1963	32,052	351,329
1964	34,868	359,307
1965	37,785	371,127
1966	39,067	384,497
1967	43,093	386,052
1968	45,794	407,822
1969	51,310	396,746
1970	58,239	415,487
1971	74,437	404,737
1972	119,025	426,241
1973	106,003	400,435
1974	113,500	384,389
1975	120,522	380,620
1976	126,694	358,567
1977	129,053	356,954
1978	143,667	368,258
1979	138,706	368,853
1980	148,301	370,022
1981	145,713	351,973
1982	146,698	342,166
1983	147,479	344,334
1984	144,501	349,186
1985	160,300	346,389
1986	153,903	347,924
1987	151,007	351,761
1988	152,633	348,492
1989	150,872	346,697
1990	153,386	331,150
1991	158,745	306,756
1992	160,385	311,564
1993	165,018	299,197
1994	158,175	291,069
1995	155,499	283,012
1996	157,107	278,975
1997	146,689	272,536
1998	145,214	267,303
1999	144,556	263,515
2000	141,135	267,961
2001	143,818	249,227
2002	147,735	255,596
2003	153,065	270,109
2004	152,923	273,069
2005	141,322	247,805
2006	132,140	239,454
2007	128,131	235,367
2008	121,708	235,794
2009	113,949	232,443
2010	119,589	243,808
2011	117,558	247,890P
2012	118,140	..

Spring is prime season for divorce filings in Indiana's Shelby County

Divorces on rise as spring approaches

shelbyvillenews.com - Tuesday, February 4, 2014 - By Nick Cusack

Divorce rate & economy bottomed-out together, but how much, and why?

The drop in the per capita divorce rate circa 2008 looked like the steady, molasses-slow continuation of a 20-year trend, and I snorted when I saw that the LA Times called it a "plunge". But the numbers look a little more dramatic when put in terms of divorces per married couple, instead of per capita. "The divorce rate among married women dropped from 2.09% to 1.95% from 2008 to 2009, then crept back up to 1.98% in both 2010 and 2011."

Divorces Rise with Economy - Family Law Prof Blog. Quoting "Divorces rise as economy recovers, study finds", By Emily Alpert Reyes, LA Times 1-27-14.

 

But perhaps a bigger problem with this is that I don't recall 2010-11 being much of an economic recovery, but that's just my off-the-cuff recollection; the statistics may tell a different story. Also, note in the statistics above that the "plunge" is almost five times as big as the "rebound".

Researchers quoted in the story say that economic factors sometimes seem to correlate with divorce rates, but more often do not, and "the jury is still out."