Divorce Rates: Fact Sheet

Item from the Smart Marriages Archive, reproduced in the Divorce Statistics Collectio n

September 25, 1998

Fact Sheet on Divorce in America
Glenn T. Stanton
Marriage and Family Analyst
Focus on the Family

(The following data is taken from Stanton's forthcoming book, Why
Marriage Matters: Reasons to Believe in Marriage in Post-Modern Society,
September 1997, Pinon Press.)

"[T]he fastest growing marital status category was divorced persons. The
number [of] currently divorced adults quadrupled from 4.3 million in
1970 to 17.4 million in 1994."
-Arlene Saluter, Marital Status and Living Arrangements: March 1994 ,
U.S.. Bureau of the Census, March 1996; series P20-484, p, vi..

In 1970, 3% of all people over 18 years of age were divorced. In 1994,
that number had climbed to 9%.
Ibid. ,table A-1

The Journal of Marriage and the Family reports that "no-fault divorce
law had a significant positive effect on the divorce rate across the 50
states." ensuring America's place as the unrivaled leader in the
worldwide divorce race.
Paul A. Nakonezny, Robert D. Schull and Joseph Lee Rodgers, "The
Effect of No-Fault Divorce Law on the Divorce Rate Across the 50 States
and Its Relation to Income, Education and Religiosity," Journal of
Marriage and the Family , 1995, 57:477-488; Ailsa Burns and Cath Scott,
Mother Headed Families and Why They Have Increased , (Hillsdale, N.J.:
Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Publishers, 1994), p. 5,9.

Divorce and Alcoholism
Marital Status and % of Lifetime Prevalence
Intact Marriage 8.9
Never Married or Cohabited 15.0
One Divorce or Separation 16.2
More than one Div. or Sep. 24.2
Cohabited only 29.2
Lee Robins and Darrel Regier, Psychiatric Disorders in America: The
Epidemiologic Catchment Area Study (New York: Free Press, 1991), p. 103.

Divorce and Suicide
The relative risk of suicide for each marital status falls as follows:
Married 1.0
Never Married 1.9
Widowed 2.8
Divorced 2.9
Jack C. Smith, James A. Mercy and Judith M. Conn, "Marital Status and
the Risk of Suicide," American Journal of Public Health , 1988,
78:78-80.

Divorce and Depression
The National Institute of Mental Health found that women in cohabiting
relationships had much greater rates of depression than women in married
relationships (second only to those twice divorced). The numbers fall as
follows (annual rate of incident of depression per 100):
Married (never divorced) 1.5
Never married 2.4
Divorced once 4.1
Divorced twice 5.8
Cohabiting 5.1
Lee Robins and Darrel Regier, Psychiatric Disorders in America: The
Epidemiologic Catchment Area Study (New York: Free Press, 1991), p. 64.

Divorce and General Mental Illness
Robins and Regier found that the prevalence of suffering from any
psychiatric disorder over a lifetime was significantly lower for those
in a legal marriage.
Marital Status Lifetime Prevalence Married, never div/sep 24 Single, never cohabit 33 Divorced/Separated 44 Unmarried Cohabiting 52 Robins and Regier, 1991, p. 334.
Divorce and Loneliness
One random sample of over 8,600 adults revealed the specific percentages
of those who felt less lonely:
Marital Status % Lonely Married 4.6 Never Married 14.5 Divorced 20.4 Widowed 20.6 Separated 29.6
This finding is even more striking given the author's definition of
loneliness being the "absence of satisfying social relationships" as
opposed to merely the close presence of other people.
Randy M. Page and Galen E. Cole, "Demographic Predictors of
Self-Reported Loneliness in Adults," Psychological Reports , 1991,
68:939-945.

Divorce and Child Well Being
A. High-School Drop-out:
According to each of the four surveys analyzed by Drs. Sara McLanahan
and Gary Sandefur, with each data set adjusting for race, sex, parental
education, number of siblings and place of residence, the percentages of
risk for high school drop out according to family type are as follows:
Source Two-Parents Single Parent National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY) 13% 29% Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) 15% 25% High School and Beyond (HSB) 9% 16% National Survey of Families and Households (NSFH) 9% 17%
Sara McLanahan and Gary Sandefur, Growing Up With a Single Parent: What
Hurts, What Helps , (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1994), p. 41.

B. Idleness (a precursor to crime)
The percentages for males and females at risk of being out of school and
out of work fall as follows and all the differences were statistically
significant:
Study Population Two-Parent Families Single Parent
Males
NLSY 12% 17%
PSID 19% 29%
HSB 9% 12%
Females
NLSY 16% 28%
PSID 26% 41%
HSB 18% 24%
McLanahan and Sandefur, 1994, p. 50.

C. Pre-Marital Births
The risks for teen births for unmarried women are as follows:
Study Population Two-Parents One-Parent
NLSY 11% 27%
PSID 14% 31%
HSB* 14% 19%
NSFH 20% 30%
* [Adolescent girls who became pregnant in school are less likely to
finish high school. This accounts for the smaller disparity between the
two family forms in a school-based survey like The High School and
Beyond Study (HSB).]
McLanahan and Sandefur, 1994, p. 53.
D. General Health Measures
Dr. Dawson found among the different family types:
* ...health vulnerability scores from 20% to 35% higher than those for
children living with both biological parents.
* ...predicted risk of injury was about 20% to 30% greater for children
from disrupted marriages than for other children.
* Children living with formerly married mothers had a 50% greater risk
of having asthma in the preceding 12 months.
* ...an increased risk of speech defects among children living with
never-married mothers.
* ...the observed proportion reported to have received professional help
for emotional or behavior problems in the preceding year varied from
2.7% for children living with both biological parents to 8.8% for
children living with formerly married mothers. For children living with
never-married mothers or with mothers and stepfathers, the respective
proportions were 4.4% and 6.6%

Deborah A. Dawson, "Family Structure and Children's Health and
Well-Being: Data from the 1988 National Heath Interview Survey on Child
Health," Journal of Marriage and the Family , 1991, 53:573-584.
E. Divorce and Adolescent Mental Health
Relying on data from the 1988 National Health Interview Survey on Child
Health, Deborah Dawson found that the percentage of children receiving
professional help for emotional or behavioral problems in the year
preceding the health interview were as followed:
Children living with % receiving help
Both biological parents 2.7%
Formerly married mothers 8.8%
Never married mothers 4.4%
Mothers and Stepfathers 6.6%
Dawson, 1991, p. 578.

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