Intro

If you’ve read or heard enough about divorce, then you’ve probably heard that 50% of marriages end in divorce and a divorce costs around $15,000. You have probably heard a lot of other things too.

I did a lot of research to find out current trends, statistics, and other notable information on divorce to help you understand if those generalizations hold true, and what statistics might impact your life.

Here are 7 divorce statistics that could actually impact you.

1. Divorce rates remain around 50%.

Based on data from the CDC spanning from 2000 to 2016, the divorce rate continues to hover around 50% of all marriages. The divorce rate per 1,000 people has gone down considerably from 2000 (3.2 per 1000, down from 4.0); however, this could also be due in part to fewer people getting married.

In 2000, the marriage rate was 8.0 per 1,000 people (with a 4.0/1000 divorce rate). But now in 2016, the marriage rate is down to 6.9 per 1,000 people.

Based on the 2016 figures, we can see that the divorce rate per 1,000 people remains around 50% (3.2 versus 6.9), albeit just slightly lower.

2. It’s hard to make things last.

The chances that your marriage will survive seemingly go down each year. In studies done and collected by the CDC, going back as far as 2002 and during 2006-2010, the odds that a man or woman would remain married at 5, 10, 15, and 20 years of marriage went down at each interval. This means that there was/is a slightly greater chance that you’ll get divorced the longer your marriage lasts.

However, that doesn’t mean that all marriages are doomed to fail. In fact, there are some things that you can control that help increase the likelihood that your marriage will remain intact.

Additionally, the historical data indicates that the rates of successful long marriages is relatively the same as current data. This means that it’s always been hard to make a marriage last a long time, but it’s not necessarily any “harder” today than it was in the past.

3. Education can save your marriage.

For men and women, there does not appear to be a significant difference between those that finished high school (or obtained a GED) versus those who did not finish high school when it comes to divorce rates. However, for women especially, there is a big boost in marriage survival rate for those that obtain secondary education.

In fact, there seems to be a positive correlation between each advancing college degree and the success of a marriage for women. For instance, the odds that a married woman will stay married go up appreciably when that woman attends even some college and, and it goes up further still for both a college degree and again for master’s degrees.

What does this mean for you?

Well, if you’re a woman, I’d suggest you go back to school if you didn’t get your college degree. Statistically, this will help your marriage. Presumably it will increase your earning capacity and standard of living. And, even if your marriage doesn’t work out, you’ll be farther along the path toward self-reliance as alimony (aka spousal maintenance) doesn’t last forever, or even very long depending on what state you live in.

If you’re a man, I’d suggest you support your wife in getting her college degree or further education. Again, it will statistically benefit your marriage. It will also likely increase your collective income, which can open up more options. And, having more money can relieve a lot of stress, which is a huge strain on marriages.

4. The timing of children can impact the length of marriage.

Interestingly, the timing of when you have your first child can play a big role on how long your marriage will last. At the 15-year mark, there was a large difference, for men and women, who had a child 8 months or more after marriage compared to those who either conceived before marriage or had a child together before marriage, as well as couples without children.

So, in other words, having a child (or children) can help your marriage, but the timing of that child makes a big difference. This probably isn’t hard to understand as people who have a child together or conceive prior to marriage may have gotten married partially out of feelings of obligation rather than love or mutual commitment.

The impact that children can have on a successful marriage is seen further into the marriage. This also seems to make sense as having a baby and/or younger children can certainly be stressful on life in general, but having children in common can strengthen bonds over the years.

5. Work matters.

Among the different stats about divorce, there are divorce statistics related to your job or career. Depending on your career, you might be more or less likely to get a divorce. Some of the jobs with the highest rates of divorce include casino gaming manager, bartenders and flight attendants.

Of course, nothing is simple with something as complex and difficult as marriage and divorce. I doubt that it is as simple as one variable (e.g., work) that solely contributes to a successful marriage or divorce. Rather, we can glean some additional possibilities with stats such as divorce rates based on jobs.

For instances, presumably most bartenders and flight attendants do not have college educations. Not having a college degree can be a contributing factor to divorce. So, perhaps that combined with a job that has late hours, hours away from home, etc. all contribute together to make for jobs with the highest risk of divorce.

You can see the top 20 jobs with the highest divorce rates here.

If you have one of these jobs or another job that you think has a high divorce rate, you can help yourself by thinking about the situations and reasons why these jobs have high divorce rates. Once you understand more fully what could be causing higher divorce rates within your job industry, you can try to avoid some of those risk factors and beat the odds.

6. Who finds love faster?

According to Divorce Magazine, men will go on average 3.5 years between their divorce and remarriage, assuming they remarry. For women on the other hand, they will wait on average 3 years between divorce and remarriage.

This is interesting because men have the stereotype of needing a woman to take care of them, or on the other end of the spectrum, are viewed as being more engaged in seeking out new relationships.

New love can be hard to find though. The median age for men and women getting a second divorce is under 40. This may change in the future as the average age for men and women getting married for the first time is rising. Based on current stats, it would seem that men and women are getting married, divorced, remarried, and divorced again all within approximately 15 years.

7. Women are choosing to get divorced.

According to one study and data taken from 2009 to 2015, women are much more likely to be the ones to initiate divorce over men.

Interestingly, the author of the study, Michael Rosenfeld, indicates that the data supports the feminist assertion that some women may find marriage as oppressive. The data indicates that men and women are equally likely to end non-marital relationships, but by contrast women are ending marital relationships (with divorce) 70% of the time. Rosenfeld believes that this disparity may have to do with gender equality and that marriage on the whole has been slow to catch up with modern expectations of gender equality.

There may be some truth to this possibility. However, I will point out that historically women have been more likely than men to initiate divorce. Although the numbers have increased over time, the greater likelihood may have other causes as well.

Conclusion

One the one hand, these divorce statistics are just numbers. They aren’t you and they don’t necessarily represent your situation nor dictate your future.

On the other hand, these divorce statistics represent real people and demonstrate trends and probabilities.

If you’re worried about divorce, you can use some of these statistics to get at the root of marital problems and the causes of divorce to put yourself in a position to succeed in your marriage. If divorce is already knocking on your door, or you want to move forward with it, it can be reassuring to know that you’re certainly not alone, nor really in the minority as nearly half of marriages are ending in divorce.

If you need divorce help, you can get check out our free Divorce Podcast or Blog to learn more about your rights and how you can protect yourself.