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Divorce
Although American divorce rates are not climbing as rapidly as they did in the 1970s and 1980s, divorce remains common in modern American life. There is an abundance of data on marriage, divorce, and cohabitation in the United States; most estimates indicate that half of all first marriages end in divorce. However, accurate divorce rates are tricky to ascertain because of Many variables, including a decrease in the rate of marriages, lack of reporting, small sample sizes, total population versus adults, and inability to differentiate between the number of first marriages and subsequent marriages that end in divorce. In working in human services fields in the 21st century, it is imperative to have an understanding of the trends of this data, the deficiencies in the available data and studies, and the implications of divorce in a diverse population.
Divorce Statistics
According to U.S. census data, there were 877,000 divorces in 2011–3.6 per 1,000 of the total population (of 44 reporting states and Washington, D.C.). This was a decrease from the 1990 data, which indicated that 4.7 people out of every 1,000 were getting a divorce (1,182,000 divorces). However, the decrease in divorces does not necessarily indicate a decrease in the divorce rate because the marriage rate also decreased. In 2009, there were 2,118,000 marriages in America (6.8 per 1,000 of the total population), a marked decrease from 2,443,000 marriages (9.8 per 1,000) just two decades before.
The National Health Statistics Report in 2012 reports marriage and divorce data on first marriages in the United States using the 2006–2010 National Survey of family Growth (NSFG). These statistics use national samples of both women and men aged 15–44. The 2006–2010 NSFG was based on 22,682 face-to-face interviews—12,279 with women and 10,403 with men, aged 15–44 years in the household population of the United States. Out of the sample of women surveyed, there were 5,534 first marriages and 1,574 first marriages that ended in divorce. Out of the men surveyed, there were 3,734 first marriages and 1,236 first marriages that ended in divorce. Even though these statistics show a higher marriage and divorce rate for women than men, the research also used a sample that consisted of more women than men. Although the divorce rate in women is still slightly higher than men in the 2009 U.S. Census data, a more equal picture of the divorce rate between men and women is portrayed—9.2 percent of men and 9.7 percent of women (per 1,000) were divorced in 2009.
The Impact of Diversity on Divorce
According to the NSFG, diversity impacts the incidence of divorce in Many ways. In looking at the probability of a marriage lasting 20 years, race has an impact on the findings. The highest probability is for foreign-born Hispanic men (70 percent) followed by Asian women (69 percent). Approximately 54 percent of Caucasian women, however, will have a first marriage that lasts 20 years, followed by only 37 percent of African American women; there is no difference in the rates between Caucasian and African American men.
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