Overview of Divorce Statistics in the United States

Most people have likely heard that divorce rates across the United States are rising, but are married couples actually splitting up at higher rates? And if divorce rates are rising, how much are they rising? These are important questions for public policy and our conception of marriage as an idea. If people divorce more readily, that could signify a decline in the overall importance or marriage or a normalization of the notion that certain people make mistakes in committing for life.

Why Tracking Rates of Marriage and Divorce Matters

While several entities and non-profit organizations study divorce in the United States, certain governmental agencies like the census bureau and the Internal Revenue Service are particularly keyed into marriage and divorce rates. This is because those organizations have a regular use for data of that type.

Divorce and marriage rates affect public policy in a myriad of ways. The Internal Revenue Service wants to collect data on divorces so that they can calculate the effect of joint tax filings versus single tax filings.¹ The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention tracks marriage and divorce rates as an indicator of public health, both physical and mental.² The Census Bureau’s entire job is solely to collect data on the nation’s citizens for use by Congress and the President in setting national policy and making laws.³ Given this widespread importance of divorce data, there are large incentives for government agencies to correctly record divorce statistics, hence why this article will rely primarily on governmental sources.

The Baseline Data

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention⁴, 2,140,272 marriages occurred in the United States during the year 2014. As a matter of percentages, that means that for every 1,000 people in the country, seven tied the knot of matrimony, resulting in roughly .7% of the United States getting hitched in 2014. The number of divorces in that same year was expectedly smaller. 813,862 people, or every three people in 1,000 (.3%) received a divorce in 2014.

These raw numbers provide a snapshot of marriage and divorce rates in the country, but what matters most to public policy analysts are both short and long term trends. The CDC website has recorded numbers of both marriages and divorces on its website for every year between 2006 and 2014⁵. In the year 2000, the CDC recorded 2,315,000 marriages (or 8.2 in 1,000 people) and 944,000 divorces or annulments (or 4 in 1,000 people).

Interpreting the Data

The CDC’s statistics reveal a trend contrary to the public’s overall view of divorce rates. While the public as a while believes that divorce rates have been steadily rising, the opposite is actually true. Divorce rates have been dropping for roughly the last twenty years⁶. The reality is that despite a trend of rising divorce rates in the 1970s and 80s, divorce rates have fallen. The CDC statistics roughly reflect this trend showing that the rates of divorce have slowly been reducing each year. Aside from the years 2006 and 2010, each year saw a statistically significant drop in divorce rates.⁷

Based on the divorce statistics alone, one would generally believe that the institution of marriage in the United States has remained very strong. However, such a conclusion may be premature. The rates of marriage have also been steadily decreasing since the CDC’s data begins in 2000. Roughly 150,000 fewer marriages occurred in 2014 than did in 2000. In other words, the rates of divorce have been decreasing more slowly than the rates of marriage. In other words, while the rates of divorce may be slowing or leveling off, divorce rates may still be increasing.

Implications of the Marriage and Divorce Data

The statistics appear to demonstrate a gradual diminishing of the institution of marriage. This could validate several different conclusions; however, because while the numbers don’t lie, observers can only speculate on the reasons for those numbers. Overall, there appear to be two main schools of thought on current divorce trends: the collapse of traditional family values and/or recent demographic changes.

On the one hand, it is possible that Americans as a whole simply have less respect for the marital relationship. As the influence of Christianity in marriage has decreased, it is reasonable to assume that the Christian bonds of marriage have diminished to the point that the marital relationship is more of a legal entity for many people than a spiritual concept.

Alternatively, the shift in marriage trends may merely be demographic. Both the rates of marriage and divorce are decreasing, which implies that fewer people, likely fewer young people, are entering into marital relationship. There could be many reasons for this such as the increase in long term non-marital  relationships or the fact that many are seeking to marry later in life after education and careers have been established.

Regardless of the reason, the statistics demonstrate that the rates of both marriage and divorce are decreasing, albeit that marriage rates are decreasing faster than divorce rates. Seeking a divorce is not an uncommon action in the United States. The increase in divorce rates during the 1970s and 80s is likely attributable to the advent of no-fault divorce in many states, but the most recent divorce and marriage trends signal different possible conclusions. As a nation, many Americans see divorce very differently than its traditional religious meaning, and that is not necessarily a bad thing for many people (although others would vehemently disagree).

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