Divorce Statistics and Studies Blog

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

U.S. military divorce rate steady around 3% per marriage, much higher for women than men

The overall divorce rate among both male and female service members held steady in fiscal 2017, marking the fourth year running that the rate has hovered between 3 percent and 3.1 percent. 

About 21,290 of 689,060 married troops divorced over the course of fiscal 2017 ...

The military divorce rate is calculated by comparing the number of troops listed as married in the Pentagon's personnel system at the beginning of the fiscal year with the number who report divorces over the year. The information is managed and compiled by the Defense Manpower Data Center.

Hidden in that larger statistic is a breakout by branch, paygrade and gender that tells an interesting story about the struggles of military marriages, said Benjamin Karney, a researcher with Rand Corp. who has long tracked the military divorce rate.

Although divorce rates among female troops continue to be much higher overall than their male counterparts -- by about 275 percent in the Army, for example -- the rates among men across the services and women in the Army and Air Force have continued a steady decline, while women in the Navy fluctuated slightly.

But female Marines continue to struggle to hold their marriages together, with a divorce rate of 7.1 percent that has increased or held steady annually since 2012. That rate saw its high-water mark in 2010, when it sat at about 9.9 percent. 

That the rate isn't declining could be a sign that family policies in the Marine Corps are not friendly toward married women, Karney said.

"When you see these changes, what's driving it is almost never changes in values or couples' abilities to talk effectively to each other," he said. "What is changing it is military policy."

The divorce rate among military personnel and the total U.S. divorce rate cannot be easily compared because they are not measured the same way.

The total U.S. divorce rate, which is measured per 1,000 residents and does not factor in six states including California, sat at 3.2 percent in 2016, the latest year for which information is available. ...

Troop Divorce Rate Unchanged; Marriage Rate Continues Fall

By Amy Bushatz on Military.com

USAF divorce rates job-by-job; heedless young marriage cited

"Divorce rates: Another view of the data"

 Air Force Times, Jun. 3, 2014

Via marriage guru Bill Coffin

2013 Military Divorce Rate Down for Female Servicemembers, Steady for Men

Female Military Divorce Rates Continue Decline

By Amy Bushatz on military.com

"... Since reaching a high of 8 percent in 2011, the female divorce rate has gone down -- hitting 7.9 percent last year and 7.2 percent this year. Female military members consistently have a much higher rate of divorce than their male counterparts across all services. The rate among males -- 2.9 percent in 2013 -- has fluctuated slightly up and down since 2005, a change that analysts consider insignificant. ..."

See also: Military Divorce Rate Down Slightly in 2012

By Amy Bushatz on military.com

Military marriages actually more resilient than average for their demographics - study

"Military marriages show a surprising level of resilience" By TOM PHILPOTT, Stars and Stripes April 12, 2012. Citing a study in the April, 2012 Journal of Family Issues by Benjamin R. Karney, David S. Loughran and Michael S. Pollard.

 

Military divorce rate keeps climbing; USAF worst, responds with Marriage Care

New stats

The divorce rate among airmen today is almost 64 percent higher than in 2001, and is the highest in the military, according to a recent Defense Department report.

A decade ago, when the U.S. invaded Afghanistan, the rate stood at 2.5 divorces per 100 marriages. In 2011, the number jumped to 3.9. The rate has climbed steadily in the past decade except in 2005 and in 2008, when it dropped ever so slightly, according to Air Force statistics obtained by Air Force Times.

... the divorce rate military-wide is the highest it’s been since 1999; 30,000 marriages ended in divorce by the end of fiscal 2011.

Of those, 7,534 were in the Air Force. Most of them — 6,743 — were enlisted airmen, for a divorce rate of 4.6 percent.

When broken down by career field, women — both enlisted and officer — have higher divorce rates overall than their male counterparts. Of the 20 highest divorce rates by career field and gender in 2010, the most recent breakdown by career field available, only two belonged to the men: Male officers who were aides-de-camp saw a divorce rate of 4 per 100 marriages and enlisted men in the medical career field had a divorce rate of 3.92 per 100 marriages. They ranked 18th and 19th, respectively.

From "Air Force divorce rate highest in military" - Air Force Times.

Military-wide statistics were reported in an earlier story, "Military divorce rate rises slightly in 2011" - Air Force Times. Excerpts: 

... roughly one in every 27 married troops got a divorce in 2011. The percentage of marriages that ended in divorce during fiscal 2011 ticked up to 3.7 percent. The USMC rate was just slightly lower, 3.6. The officer corps divorce rate rose to 2.1 percent, up from 1.9 percent in 2010. The divorce rate for enlisted service members remained flat at 4.1.

The article on USAF divorce speculates about the reasons for divorces and for the increase, and then reports on the effects of it and what the Air Force is doing about it:

“When marriages are crumbling, it affects readiness, it affects unit morale, it affects unit cohesion,” he said. “When someone is going through a divorce, it makes it very hard for them to focus on their jobs. When an airman is going through a divorce, it affects all the airmen they work with.”

About 500 active-duty chaplains across the Air Force offer marriage counseling, but the Air Force is making a bigger push to keep marriages intact and healthy through Marriage Care retreats. Created three years ago and offered by the Chaplain Corps College, Marriage Care retreats were designed by Air Force chaplains specifically for airmen and their spouses. ... about 50 Air Force chaplains were trained to offer a Marriage Care retreat, and about 20 bases were involved in the effort. The Air Force is expanding the program as it trains more chaplains and puts more money into the program. ... in fiscal 2011 there were 31 weekend retreats, and more than 1,200 people, airmen and spouses, attended.

 

 

 

 

Military divorce up 20% from 2001 to 2009, but marriage ed. helps - DOD

A CBS station in Birmingham says that the Defense Department reports a military divorce rate of 2.6% in 2001, and 3.6% in 2009, but that it did not go up any higher in 2010.  (A major RAND study in 2007 had described the increase as gradual and unrelated to deployments -- at that time the rate was 3%, which it pointed out was the same as in 1996.)

 

Breakdown by gender: it says that in 2010 "7.8 percent of women in the military got a divorce, compared with 3 percent of military men." That's consistent with earlier figures.

 

But the article also acknowledges, "A big reason for the plateau could be the military's recent proactive stance to lowering these divorce rates. There are several programs offering marriage support.  A recent study showed that couples attending one such program suffer 33 percent fewer divorces than those who do not." More detail on that here.

Marriage skills education cuts military divorce by 2/3 in blind test

Randomized study demonstrates divorce reduction of 2/3 for military couples receiving marriage education. 

Unlike many studies of marriage education, and indeed of almost any other kind of education or counseling for any kind of social behavior, this study was able to have a control group that did not take the classes, AND to randomly assign couples between the control  group and the group that took marriage education, specifically "PREP for Strong Bonds" delivered by Army chaplains. One year later, 2% of the marriage-educated group divorced and 6% of the control group divorced.

This is not the first study using randomly-assigned control groups - earlier studies have likewise found that what's most effective for couples is curricula which are professionally developed, but which are delivered within a particular group, whether religious, ethnic or occupational. 

 

Female GIs struggle with higher divorce rate - AP

Female GIs struggle with higher rate of divorce 

By  Kimberly Hefling, Associated Press –  March 8, 2011

"Their marriages are more than twice as likely to end in divorce as those of their male comrades - and up to three times as likely for enlisted women. And military women get divorced at higher rates than their peers outside the military, while military men divorce at lower rates than their civilian peers. ... Last year, 7.8 percent of women in the military got a divorce, compared with 3 percent of military men, according to Pentagon statistics. Among the military's enlisted corps, nearly 9 percent of women saw their marriages end, compared with a little more than 3 percent of the men."

This excellent article goes on to discuss many effects and possible causes of this problem, several individual cases, and some efforts to help support veterans in their personal lives.

See also:

For women in military, an elevated divorce rate - Washington Post

Surprising new stats on Air Force marriage and divorce

Female airmen, caregivers split up the most  - Air Force Times.

Excerpts: Forget everything you thought you knew about marriage and divorce in the Air Force. Most of it isn't true. Airmen in career fields with the highest deployment tempos don't get divorced more than those who spend most of their time at home station. Fighter jocks, supposed playboys, actually get divorced less than the force as a whole. And those whose job is to care for others -- nurses, social workers, family support center staff and educators -- have the hardest time staying married. As of August, 70.9 percent of officers and 56.3 percent of enlisted were married, and 4.4 percent of active-duty officers and 7.3 percent of enlisted airmen were divorced.