Divorce statistics are quantified in many different ways, by different entities who may or may not have a vested interest in the outcome. Therefor it is prudent to seek out statistics on divorce from as many sources as you can. Divorce rates and statistics are fluid, changing with the economy, mood and spirit of the nation as a whole.
And as global influences impact American Divorce Statistics, new and varied results are the norm.
Divorce Statistics
Statistics about divorce are an indication of the number of divorces granted and not of the number of individuals that are divorcing. As per the national practice in the United States, the statistics for divorce are procured from civil registers and / or court records. The compilation of these statistics is the duty of the national statistical office or the Civil Registrar or the other Government offices. While developing these statistics, the date of the Divorce Decree is taken into account. The incidence of divorce and consequently the statistics are affected by the following factors –
- The relative difficulty or ease of obtaining a divorce as per the laws of the region
- The capacity of the individuals to meet economical expenditures of the Court procedures
- The influence of certain religious faiths
Divorce statistics in the United States
- Almost 49 percent of the marriages end up in divorces
- First marriages end up in divorces in an average duration of just less than 8 years
- 60 percent of all divorces are related to individuals aged 25 to 39
- There were more than 21 million divorces in the year 2000. In the same year, 58 million couples were married and still lived separated
- The average male age for a second divorce was 40.4 years and the average female age was 37.3 years in 1990
- The divorce rate of first time marriages is almost 10 percent lesser than the divorce rate for second marriages
- Over a 40 year period, 67 percent of first marriages terminate in a divorce and 50 percent of these divorces take place within the first 7 years
- Every year more than 1 million children are affected by divorce
Divorce statistics regarding the risk of divorce
- In case of individuals who have attended college, the risk of divorce is less by 13 percent
- If a person has strong religious beliefs, the risk of divorce is 14 percent less
- When the parents are happily married, the risk of divorce of their children decreases by 14 percent
- Those who marry for the first time after they attain the age of 25, in their case the risk of divorce is less by 24 percent
- If the yearly income is more than 0.5 million USD, the risk of divorce decreases by 30 percent
Effects of divorce on children
- The possibility that teenaged girls from single parent homes would give birth to an out-of-wedlock child or would drop out of high school is two times as compared to girls living with both parents
- The children who are brought up in single parent homes display a lesser possibility to marry and more possibility to divorce
- 50 percent of the children in the country are a witness to the breakup of their parent’s marriage. Almost half of these 50 percent are a witness to the second divorce of a parent
- From 1970 to 1996, the number of children residing with both parents plummeted from 85 to 68 percent
