Tuesday, April 19, 2005
Divorce, American Style
The New York Times has an interesting story about the marriage vs. divorce rates. It’s not as bad as we’ve been told.
According to the report, for people born in 1955 or later, “the proportion ever divorced had actually declined,” compared with those among people born earlier. And, compared with women married before 1975, those married since 1975 had slightly better odds of reaching their 10th and 15th wedding anniversaries with their marriages still intact.
The highest rate of divorce in the 2001 survey was 41 percent for men who were then between the ages of 50 to 59, and 39 percent for women in the same age group.
I’ve had a lot of married friends (both liberal and conservatives, hippies even) who have only seen the altar once. I just figured I was “attracted” to these types of people (that sounds so gay) because divorce has run rampant in my family (which is why I never married). I guess not, it was just the law of averages.
What’s interesting to me is that the cultural climate paints quite the opposite picture.
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Actually, the whole “50 percent of marriages end in divorce” stat that gets thrown around a lot is a big myth. I recall a statistician explaining the problems with it a while back, but I don’t have access to the numbers.
I’m glad things are working out for more people, however.
I’ve always heard that those of us who have been married and divorced throw the curve a bit if we get remarried. That’s because we’re even more likely to divorce again in the future--I suppose like many things in life, once you’ve crossed a boundary for the first time, it grows easier to do it the next time.
It’s one of the reasons I’m a little hesitant to be married again.
I wonder how true it is that once divorced makes it more likely you’ll be twice divorced. Other than my aunt, a serial marrier, I can’t say I know anybody who’s been divorced more than once. I think the statistics we’ve been fed have been manipulated to support other agendas.
The military really hurts the stats, too.
I’ve been divorced 3 times...I’ve known more than dozen people with at least that many.
I work in this field and while the article raises a few good points it misses the boat on a few others.
The 50% stat is a valid one if your looking at yearly rates. As an example, in 2001 there where 2.4 million marriages and 1.3 million divorces. Slighty more than a 50% rate.
If people marry again, it actually suppreses the number. As an example: If you take 10 marriages, 5 divorces result. 50% rate, if those people remarry and all the marriages make, you get 10 more marriages and only 5 divorces out of 20, or 25%.
Now that doesn’t mean 50% of all people who have married have divorced. That number has remained constant at around 40%. According to the Barna research group the number for 20-30 year olds is MUCH higher in their age span than previous generations and it is virtual certainty that this will be the first geenration to have more people who experience at least 1 divorce than none.
I don’t see any agenda for any group--nor do i see a cultural climate for it. It is just a fact of life and has been as long as humans have been getting married. Nobody enters marriage thinking it will end.
How is one attracked to ‘once married’ people? They seem no different than those who have been divorced to me. Some good some bad.