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.