Marriage and Divorce in America

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Marriage and divorce in any country is the reflection of their socio-economic and cultural conditions. Also, it shows the preferences and priorities of the present generation. Marriage and divorce in America demonstrate that people tend to prefer living without marriage. Some even start to create a family without getting engaged into marital bond. Divorce rates are going up mainly because of the increasing awareness of individual rights and freedom. There are many other reasons behind the consistently growing number of divorce cases.

Following is the analysis of marriage and divorce data on various parameters.

The data indicates average values collected from 2000 to 2007 A.D.

General Scenario of Marriage and Divorce in America

• Age	Percentage of Males who get married by this age	Percentage of Females who get married by this age
  55	95	95
  45	87	90
  35	77	84
  25	32	50

• Percentage of unmarried couples residing with each other who are male-female unions: 89
• Number of unmarried couples residing with each other: 5.5 million
• Percentage of population that is widowed: 7
• Percentage of population that is divorced: 10 (It was 6 percent in 1980 and 8 percent in 1990)
• Percentage of population that has never married: 24
• Percentage of population that is married: 59 (It was 72 percent in 1970 and 62 percent in 1990)

The statistics shows that people prefer to marry only after financial and social settlement. So, the average age of marriage is the late twenties when a person is established in the career and can afford a family. Also, it shows that co-habitation has replaced marriage in many cases.

Specific Statistics of Marriage and Divorce in America

• 8.1 percent of household couples are made up of unmarried heterosexual partners. This indicates the tendency of members to go for live-in relationship. The trend can be seen in metropolitan cities
• In 2004, the maximum divorce rate was observed in Nevada and it was 6.4 (per 1,000 population). The minimum divorce rate was seen in the District of Columbia, which was 1.7
• The marriage rate in 2004 was 7.8 (per 1,000 population) and this decreased to 7.5 in 2005
• The peak divorce rate was 5.3 (per 1,000 population) in 1981. In 1990, this rate was 4.7, in 2000 it was 4.2 and in 2005 it plummeted to 3.6
• The population of America increased by 2.9 million from 2004 to 2005. However, in 2004, 2.279 million marriages took place and these dropped to 2.23 million in 2005

  Anniversary	Percentage of married people who reach it
  50th	5
  35th	20
  25th	33
  15th	52
  10th	65
  5th	82

• On an average, males wait for 3.3 years and females wait for 3.1 years to remarry after the first divorce. This shows the time taken by the individuals to recover from the traumatic consequences of divorce
• First marriages that terminate in a divorce last for an average period of 7.8 years among males and 7.9 years for females. This period indicates the period awaited by the spouses to save their marriage
• Second marriages that terminate in a divorce last for an average period of 7.3 years for males and 6.8 years for females

  	Average age of males	Average age of females
  First marriage	26.9	25.3
  First divorce	30.5	29.0
  Second marriage	34.0	32.0
  Second divorce	39.3	37.0

• 95 percent of divorced individuals finally remarry
• 76 percent of 2^nd marriages terminate in a divorce in 5 years. There are large number of second marriages that have proved to be unsuccessful.
• 87 percent of 3^rd marriages end in a divorce. There is a very low percentage of successful third marriages.
• 61 percent of men and 54 percent of women who undergo a 2^nd marriage finally divorce again.
• 50 percent of 1^st marriages, 67 percent of 2^nd marriages and 74 percent of 3^rd marriages are failures, and the couple gets divorce.
• 2 fundamental causes why a majority of 2^nd marriages fail are as follows
  • The remarried person can't bear the pressure of handling the ex-spouse as well as the upbringing of the step children simultaneously.
  • The remarried person develops an opinion that the new partner is not much different than the older one.

Marriage and divorce statistics are based on the publications of the government reports. This data comprises of the observations of marriage and divorce rates in all states.

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