Marriage and Divorce Trends

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Marriage is an old concept that has been carried over from generations to generations. It marks the union of two people who share a mutual bond. With time a few obvious changes in the rules and regulations of marriage has been introduced. But, still a marriage is an acceptable and preferable way to start a family in the world. Divorce that is a termination of marriage was allowed in many cultures since a long time. In a civilized society, it is taken as a reality that reflects the changing attitude of people towards a marital bond.

If the marriage and divorce trends over the past 50 years are extrapolated, one doubts whether the concepts of marriage and divorce would exist in 2050. It is worthwhile to contemplate whether the institution of marriage would exist in the first place. Obviously, such a thought is difficult to digest for an inherently Catholic girl.

Statistics related to Marriage and Divorce Trends

• In the past 50 years (1953 to 2003), the marriage rate has decreased by 50 percent. (Marriage rate is the number of marriages per year per 1,000 unmarried adult women). This shows that the mentality of people to get married has been decreased
• As time is passing by, the acceptable age of marriage is increasing. The average age is 25 for women and 27 for men. The tendency of people shows that they prefer to marry after getting financially settled
• 66 percent of married women and men are of the opinion that they have a happy married life. The rate of people staying in marriage peacefully is still quite high
• During the first few years of marital life, one or both partners alter their religious affiliation. The trend indicates that about 50 percent of inter-church couples become same-church couples. This may be taken as the influence of religious thoughts of a partner on the other's mind
• About 40 to 50 percent of Catholic marriages take place between a non-Catholic and a Catholic partner
• Of all the population groups in the US, the African-Americans have the least marriage rate
• In any specific year, about 50 percent of the marriages are remarriages for one or both partners
• From 1980 to 2004, there has been a slight reduction in the divorce rate. In 1980, there were 22 divorces per 1,000 married women and in 2004, this number decreased to 18
• Within the first 5 years of married life, 20 percent of first marriages terminate
• The circumstances owing to which the possibility of divorce decreases are as follows -
  • Having a child after marriage
  • Absence of divorce in family of origin
  • Having a religious affiliation
  • Having more education
  • More income
  • Old age
• Catholics have 25 percent possibility to get divorced while Protestants have 39 percent. In Catholics, marriage is considered as an unbreakable bond. Thus, instead of divorce, the Church approves an annulment of marriage
• About 60 to 67 percent of second marriages terminate in a divorce, while 74 percent of third marriages end in divorce. So, it can be seen that the probability of success in third marriages is quite low
• The tendency of cohabitation before marriage is increasing rapidly. That is, most people prefer to be partners before getting into the marital relation. More than half the number of marriages took place on this condition
• Approximately 40 percent of cohabiting households comprise of children. That is, people tend to create and establish family even before getting married

The Emergence of Social Networking for Divorce

With the advancement in technology, there is now a global trend of employing social networking for divorce.

• In Brazil, the government permits people to divorce on the Internet. There is no need to make court appearance even once. This is regarded as a quick and cheap divorce
• In New York, the You Tube sensation Tricia Walsh Smith is famous to give divorce advice
• In Britain, a couple of individuals used Face-book for divorce
• During divorce trials, emails, text messages and GPS (Global Positioning System) are being increasingly used (particularly as an evidence for adultery)
• The divorce forms and other divorce papers are readily available on the Internet. Thus, people can download them from the authorized websites

How does money alter divorce trends?

• Those couples who are getting richer with time exhibit less inclination for divorce
• The financial condition of the spouse has very great impact on the sustainability of marriage. It was observed that, during recession of 2008, most people broke their marriages due to economical instability
• The spouses coming from extremely different financial situations show increasing inclination towards divorce

So, it is obvious that marriage and divorce trends keep on changing according to the social and economical conditions. Nowadays, due to difficulty in getting settled and increasing inflation rates, most people opt for living together without marriage. A divorce is not required in these cases to get separated legally from your partner, as there is no exchange of rights in case of co-habitation.

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