In 2018 the CDC reported that the national divorce rate is 2.9 people per 1,000. This is a more than 50% decrease from the average in 2000. (Excludes data for California, Hawaii, Indiana, Minnesota, and New Mexico.)4 Women get divorced at a significantly higher rate when you separate the data. States with the highest rates of divorce for women: The following states have the lowest divorce rates for women: The US states with the highest median income: The US states with the lowest median income are Income also impacts the decision to get married, which in turn has an indirect effect on the rate of divorce. In 2018, the Census board reported that:What is the divorce rate in America?
Rates of divorce on a State-by-State basis
U.S. states with the highest rates of divorce
U.S. states with the lowest rates of divorce
Rates of divorce across the U.S.
The Rate of Divorce for Women
How does the rate of divorce differ for women?
Rates of divorce for women across the U.S.
-1.png?width=940&name=Rates%20of%20Divorce%20(Women)-1.png "48 Divorce Statistics in 2020 (in America) Including Divorce Rate (6)")
What is the rate of marriage in the U.S.?
U.S. states with the highest rates of marriage
U.S. states with the lowest rates of marriage
Rates of marriage across the U.S.
Divorce Demographics 2018 – 2013 for adults over the age of 15
How does income impact divorce?
Median income levels across the U.S.
- 20% of 18 – 34 year old who made $40,000+ per year were unmarried.
- 40% of 18 – 34 year old who made $40,000+ per year were married.19
A significant number of couples say that income is a significant barrier to getting married.
- 47% of those with incomes below $30,000
- 21% of those with incomes of $75,000+
In what year of marriage is divorce most common?
Of the 40% to 50% of marriages that end in divorce, the average marriage makes it to about 8 years of marriage.20 That’s at the time of filing for divorce, so this data does not include how long divorce attorneys might battle it out before officially filing.
- In general, the time periods in which a couple is most likely to get divorced are in the first two years of your marriage or in years 5 through 8.21
- Marriage and divorce statistics regarding duration look a bit different between men and women. Women tend to stay in their first marriages a little longer than men, and men tend to stay in subsequent marriages a little longer than women.22
It remains to be seen whether there is any difference in these trends between same sex and opposite sex couples.
What is the most common reason for divorce?
- When divorced people are surveyed about what caused their marriage to end, 73% cite lack of commitment as a contributing factor.23
Other common reasons include
- Excessive arguing
- Infidelity
- Marrying too young.24
What are the most common reasons for marriage?
- Love – 88%
- Commitment – 81%
- Companionship – 76%
- Desire for children – 49%
- Need to have a relationship recognized by a religious community – 30%
- Finances – 28%
- Legal right and benefits –23%25
How does age impact divorce?
Divorce is increasing in some age cohorts, such as Baby Boomers and Gen X, while decreasing for Millennials. Millennials represent the largest demographic in terms of population numbers, so the reduction in their age category has shifted the overall rate of divorce downward.
Trends in divorce rates among Baby Boomers have been dramatic. Following the era of their parents, the “Silent Generation”, Boomers who came of age in the late 70s and early 80s started to divorce at a rate not seen prior to 1970.26
Rates of divorce by age group:
- In 2013, the rate of divorce for adults ages 50 and older (Baby Boomers) averaged 10 divorces per 1,000 married couples. In 1990, the rate was 5 divorces per 1,000 according to the National Center for Health Statistics and U.S. Census Bureau.27
- Boomers now represent the age group most likely to divorce, with more than 40% of couples aged 60+ divorced as of 2010.28
- In 2013, Gen X adults ages 40 to 49 averaged 21 divorces per 1,000 married couples. In 1990, the rate for this age cohort was 18 divorces per 1,000.29
- Millennial adults ages 25 to 39 averaged 24 divorces per 1,000 married couples. In 1990, the rate for this age cohort was 30 per 1,000.
How does age impact marriage?
Millennials are the only age group to see a reduction in both divorce and marriage rates. According to a 2018 report by the Fertility and Family Statistics branch of the Census Board, in 2013:
- 26% of adults ages 18 to 32 were married in 2018 (i.e., “Millennials”)
- 36% of same-age adults were married in 1997 (i.e., this cohort is currently “Generation X”)
- 48% of same-age adults were married in 1980 (i.e., this cohort is currently the “Baby Boomers”)30
The reports posits that events such as the Great Recession of 2008, increasing home prices and the high financial burden of student loan debt that millennials incur create barriers to marriage and creating a family.31
How does age at marriage impact the likelihood of divorce?
In general, the younger one is when they get married, the more likely they are to ultimately get divorced.32 The average age of divorcing couples in America is about 30 years old, with divorcing women skewing a little bit younger than divorcing men.33
According to the most recent estimates, the average age of those getting married for the first time is 27.4 for women, and 29.5 for men.34
How does education impact divorce?
In 2015, among adults ages 25 and older:
- 65% with a four-year college degree were married
- 55% of those with some college education
- 50% among those with no education beyond high school.
Twenty-five years earlier, the marriage rate was above 60% for each of these groups.35
- Women with a 4 year college degree or higher have an 80% chance of being married for more than 20 years.36
- Women with a high school education or less have a 40% chance of being married for more than 20 years.
- In 2014, the Pew Research Center found that of adults ages 25 and older in 2014, 65% of those with a bachelor’s degree or more were married, compared with 53% of adults with less education.37
What is the divorce rate by ethnicity?
Marriage rates vary significantly across race and ethnicity. In 2015:
- 54% of white adults ages 18 and older were married.
- 60% of Asian Americans
- 46% of Hispanics
- 30% of African Americans38
While Asian (29%) and Hispanic (27%) newlyweds are most likely to intermarry in the U.S., the most dramatic increases in intermarriage have occurred among black newlyweds, 18% of whom married someone of a different race or ethnicity, up from 5% in 1980. About one-in-ten white newlyweds (11%) are married to someone of a different race or ethnicity.39
How does race impact marriage and divorce?
Ethnicity can also be a predictor of divorce. Asian Americans are the least likely to get divorced of all, with an estimated 18% of Asian American women and 16% of men experiencing at least one divorce in their lifetimes.40 Next up are those of Spanish/Hispanic/Latino descent, among whom about about 30% of women and 27% of men will experience divorce.41
Caucasian Americans fall right in the middle, with 38% of white women and 36% of white men going through divorce at least once in their lifetimes.42 Black men and women both experience at least one divorce at a rate of about 42%.43
Finally, Native Americans are at the highest statistical risk of experiencing divorce, with 44% of men and 45% of women ultimately ending one or more marriages.44
Are children of divorce more likely to experience divorce themselves?
If your parents are still married, then you have the least statistical likelihood of getting divorced yourself.45 Oddly enough, people whose parents divorced and then remarried are more likely to experience divorce than people whose parents divorced but never remarried.46
Both men and women whose parents divorced are more likely to marry other children of divorce, but this effect is amplified in women over their male counterparts.47
However, if your parents are divorced, don’t let the fear of dooming your own children to the same fate stop you from having kids -- couples who have experienced the birth of at least one child are 40% less likely to split up than their childless counterparts.48
Footnotes:
1. https://www.census.gov/library/visualizations/interactive/marriage-divorce-rates-by-state.html
2. https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/02/13/8-facts-about-love-and-marriage/
3. https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/marriage-divorce.htm
4. Id
5. Id
6. Id
7. https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/dvs/state-divorce-rates-90-95-99-18.pdf
8.https://www.census.gov/library/visualizations/interactive/marriage-divorce-rates-by-state.html
9. Id
10. https://www.fatherly.com/love-money/what-is-divorce-rate-america/
11.https://www.apa.org/topics/divorce/
13. https://www.census.gov/library/visualizations/interactive/marriage-divorce-rates-by-state.html
14. https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/dvs/national-marriage-divorce-rates-00-18.pdf
15. Id
16. https://data.census.gov/cedsci/table?q=divorce&hidePreview=false&tid=ACSST1Y2018.S1251&vintage=2018
17. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_and_territories_by_income
18. Id
19. https://www.census.gov/library/visualizations/2018/comm/earnings-married-unmarried.html
20. https://www.census.gov/prod/2005pubs/p70-97.pdf
21. https://www.fatherly.com/health-science/twenty-year-guide-divorce-risk/
22. https://www.wf-lawyers.com/divorce-statistics-and-facts/
23. https://www.wf-lawyers.com/divorce-statistics-and-facts/
24. Id
25. https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/02/13/8-facts-about-love-and-marriage/
30. https://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/library/working-papers/2018/demo/SEHSD-WP-2018-09.pdf
31. https://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/library/working-papers/2018/demo/SEHSD-WP-2018-09.pdf
32. https://www.wf-lawyers.com/divorce-statistics-and-facts/
33. https://www.mckinleyirvin.com/family-law-blog/2012/october/32-shocking-divorce-statistics/
34. https://www.wf-lawyers.com/divorce-statistics-and-facts/
36. https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/12/04/education-and-marriage/
37. Id
39. https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/02/13/8-facts-about-love-and-marriage/
40. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/04/06/who-gets-divorced-in-america-in-7-charts/
41. Id
42. Id
43. Id
44. Id
45. Id
46. Id
47. Id
48. Id
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FAQs
What is the divorce rate in the US in 2020? ›
In 2020, the divorce rate in the United States stood at 2.3 per 1,000 of the population.
What are the divorce statistics in the US? ›The current divorce rate in the US is 2.3 persons per 1,000 people. Overall, the rate of divorces in America is falling. Divorces amongst people aged 50+ years are rising. Fewer couples choose to marry than pre-1990.
What percentage of marriages end in divorce in 2022? ›Marriage and divorce are both common experiences for adults, although both can be challenging. About 90% of people in Western cultures marry by age 50. In the United States, about 50% of married couples divorce, the sixth-highest divorce rate in the world.
Is the US divorce rate increasing? ›As of 2019, both marriage rates AND divorce rates in the US are decreasing – with the marriage rate dropping from 8.2 per 1,ooo people in 2000 to 6.1 and the divorce rate from 4.0 in 2000 to 2.7.
Has Covid increased divorce? ›We expected 714,997 divorces would occur in 2020. However, only 630,505 did so. As with marriages, this decline represented a 12% reduction in the number of divorces occurring in 2020. The two states with the largest percent declines were Louisiana (56.5%) and Maryland (43.3%) fewer divorces.
Why is America's divorce rate so high? ›Over the years, researchers have determined certain factors that put people at higher risk for divorce: marrying young, limited education and income, living together before a commitment to marriage, premarital pregnancy, no religious affiliation, coming from a divorced family, and feelings of insecurity.
Who has the highest rate of divorce in the US? ›Nevada has the highest divorce rates in the US, and Iowa has the lowest. When it comes to the highest divorce rate in the United States, Nevada is at number one, with 5.6 divorces per 1,000 people (crude rate). Iowa, on the other hand, only records 2.4 divorces for every 1,000 persons, according to the CDC.
What are the top 3 causes of divorce in the US? ›According to various studies, the three most common causes of divorce are conflict, arguing, irretrievable breakdown in the relationship, lack of commitment, infidelity, and lack of physical intimacy. The least common reasons are lack of shared interests and incompatibility between partners.
How long has the divorce rate been 50%? ›So, has the divorce rate ever been 50%? Nope. Never was. Despite the fact that many hold this wisdom as truth, experts have debunked this figure multiple times over the years.
Which country has the highest divorce rate 2022? ›The country with the highest yearly divorce rate is the Maldives with 5.52 divorces per 1000 people, more than double the global average of 1.69.
Who has the highest divorce rate in the world? ›
Maldives, the country with the highest divorce rate, has 5.52 divorces per 1000 people. This is almost two times higher than the US with 2.3 divorces per 1000 people.
What is the number one cause of divorce today? ›1. Lack of Commitment. In several studies that asked people to choose from a list of important reasons for their divorce, lack of commitment came out at the top of the list. (As many as 85% of participants in one study gave this answer.)
Why is divorce increasing? ›So increase in divorce rates indicates how women's economic autonomy has improved and the stigma associated with divorce has reduced. Getting a divorce still comes with socio-economic barriers, but while these barriers were insurmountable for nearly all women a few decades ago, this is gradually changing.
What year of marriage is divorce most common? ›While there are countless divorce studies with conflicting statistics, the data points to two periods during a marriage when divorces are most common: years 1 – 2 and years 5 – 8. Of those two high-risk periods, there are two years in particular that stand out as the most common years for divorce — years 7 and 8.
What percent of American marriages end in divorce? ›Even if that many marriages ever did disintegrate at one point, they don't now. Divorce is on the decline and has been since the 1980s in America (when that 50% divorce statistic took hold). Experts now put your chances of uncoupling at about 39% in the U.S. This sounds like such promising news.
What percentage of marriages are sexless? ›And many likely do last a lifetime, because couples fall into the trap of thinking that sexless marriages are “normal.” While they are common – estimates for the number of sexless marriages range from 10 to 20 percent of all marriages – if one or both partners are unhappy, that is never normal.
What are the Top 5 reasons for divorce? ›- Infidelity. Cheating on your spouse not only breaks a vow—it breaks the trust in a relationship. ...
- Lack of Intimacy. Physical intimacy is important in any romantic relationship, but it is essential to the growth of a long-term relationship. ...
- Communication. ...
- Money. ...
- Addiction.
| Religious tradition | Married | Divorced/separated |
|---|---|---|
| Mainline Protestant | 55% | 12% |
| Mormon | 66% | 7% |
| Muslim | 41% | 8% |
| Orthodox Christian | 48% | 9% |
Based upon available data, the country with the lowest divorce rate in the world is Sri Lanka, with a divorce rate of 0.15 divorces per 1,000 residents. Vietnam and Guatemala have the next lowest rate at 0.2 divorces per every 1,000 residents.
What age is divorce most common? ›The average age for people going through a divorce for the first time is 30 years old. According to a recent report, more than half, or 60%, of divorces involve spouses who are between the ages of 25 and 39. However, while 30 is the average age, the divorce rate for people over 50 has doubled since 1990.
Who initiates divorce more? ›
A study led by the American Sociological Association determined that nearly 70% of divorces are initiated by women. And the percentage of college-educated American women who initiated divorce is even higher.
What are the 7 causes of divorce? ›- Infidelity. An affair will typically occur in a relationship that is already deteriorating. ...
- Growing Apart. Divorced couples commonly state that growing apart was the cause of their divorce. ...
- Communication Issues. ...
- Arguments. ...
- Addiction. ...
- Money. ...
- Lack of Commitment.
Fifty-five percent of all married couples have been married for at least 15 years, according to the census report, while 35 percent have celebrated their 25th anniversaries and a special 6 percent have made it more than 50 years.
Have divorce rates increased or decreased? ›In the US, divorce rates more than doubled from 2.2 per 1,000 in 1960 to over 5 per 1,000 in the 1980s. In the UK, Norway and South Korea, divorce rates more than tripled. Since then divorce rates declined in many countries. The trends vary substantially from country to country.
What states have highest divorce rates? ›...
Here Are the States Where Your Marriage Won't Last.
| State | DIVORCED WOMEN PER 1,000 MARRIED INDIVIDUALS |
|---|---|
| Oklahoma | 10.40% |
| Nevada | 10.20% |
| New Mexico | 10.20% |
| Kentucky | 10.10% |
Key points. Researching marital effects on happiness is tricky because happier people are generally more likely to get married than others. Still, statistics suggest that the chance of a marriage being happy are no better than 50 percent.
Which country is No 1 in divorce? ›Luxembourg: 87 per cent
And right now, it's also the top country with the highest divorce rate in the world.
Vatican City is a Catholic-run city-state governed by the Pope. Deeply Catholic as it is, it does not allow citizens to divorce. Surprising very few people. The Vatican is the smallest country in the world, covering approximately 100 acres with a permanent population of 842 all-Catholic residents.
Who causes divorce most? ›Whether accepted or not, there is one fact that cannot be disputed. And that is that women initiate divorce more often than men on average. Numerous studies have shown this. In fact, nearly 70 percent of divorces are initiated by women.
What is the #1 cause of divorce? ›According to various studies, the three most common causes of divorce are conflict, arguing, irretrievable breakdown in the relationship, lack of commitment, infidelity, and lack of physical intimacy. The least common reasons are lack of shared interests and incompatibility between partners.
Which country has the highest divorce rate 2020? ›
The Maldives has the highest divorce rate in the world, with 5.52 divorces per 1,000 people per year.
Who suffers the most in a divorce? ›Statistics show that while women initiate divorce almost twice the rate that men do, women are also much more likely to greatly struggle financially after divorce. This is particularly true if children are involved.
What are the 3 main issues that lead to divorce? ›- Commitment. ...
- Infidelity. ...
- Conflict and arguing. ...
- Marrying too young. ...
- Financial problems. ...
- Substance abuse. ...
- Domestic violence.
What is the average length of marriage? On average, the length of a marriage in the U.S. is seven to eight years. Some states have a higher rate than others, but the divorce rate for the country is around 50%.
Where does the US rank in divorce? ›| Country | Number of Divorces per 1,000 Population | Year of Data |
|---|---|---|
| China | 3.2 | 2018 |
| Cuba | 2.9 | 2019 |
| Ukraine | 2.88 | 2020 |
| United States | 2.7 | 2020 |
Using the same data, we can see that Native Americans have the highest divorce rate among the participants surveyed, with 45 percent of men and 44 percent of women having been divorced or married more than once.
Who has the highest divorce rate in America? ›Nevada has the highest divorce rates in the US, and Iowa has the lowest. When it comes to the highest divorce rate in the United States, Nevada is at number one, with 5.6 divorces per 1,000 people (crude rate). Iowa, on the other hand, only records 2.4 divorces for every 1,000 persons, according to the CDC.