That Famous Divorce Rate: True or False? 

How many times have you heard someone say that half of all marriages end in divorce?  Or that the divorce rate in this country is off the charts?  Well the statistics beg to differ.  According to scholars, in 2007, the divorce rate was the lowest it had been since 1970!

 In 1970, Nixon was president, bellbottoms were cool, your kitchen was orange, and the divorce rate was 3.5 out of every 1000 people.  That may not sound like much, but it had been 2.5 just five years before.  I blame hippies.

 Then, in 1981, I was born.  Reagan was president, everybody pretended to like shoulder pads, and the divorce rate went up to a whopping 5.3.   Finally, last year, in 2007, it went back down to a comfy 3.6.  So where do they get that all-too common statistic about 1 in 2 marriages ending in divorce?  And what’s the cause of this fluctuation?

For those of you who care, the answer is complicated.  According to research, the divorce rate isn’t even credible and I’ll try my college-educated best to explain why.  Apparently, these stats are done based on marriages in one year per 1000 people versus the divorces in one year per the same amount of people.  But scholars say that because those divorcing in a given year are not the same people who are marrying in that year (minus the negligible percent of marriages that last less than one year) the statistics don’t work.  This kind of makes sense to me, but in the way that long division makes sense to me, where I know I’d get it if I gave it a thorough inspection but I can’t bear to look at it because it makes my brain hurt.

As for the change in rate, well that too isn’t what it seems.  Some researchers say that the divorce rates new low isn’t actually due to more couples sticking it out, but rather less people getting married.    In 2007, it was reported that the marriage rate had dropped nearly 30 percent in just the last 25 years, as well as the fact that people are waiting an average of five years longer to marry than they did in 1970.

Also affecting the decline in marriages?  Couples are living together ten times more than in 1960.  This could be due to a number of factors.  Women are able to make a living now, much more so than they were fifty years ago.  They no longer need a husband to rely on for financial support.  Also, divorce no longer causes the shame it did fifty years ago.  That stigma has faded away and couples are now more open to admitting they need help.

The stats might seem daunting, but the important thing is to take it all with a grain of salt.  Don’t let the numbers stop you from getting married, or splitting up, if it’s the right move for your relationship.  

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*** All statistical information was found either at Boston news New Hampshire, or at divorcereform.org.