What is the Real Divorce Rate?

The divorce rate here in the US has been the subject of scrutiny and thought for a long time.  However, it’s also the subject of a lot of debate, because claims that the divorce rate is over 50% are simply not true according to true statisticians.  They say that the figures that are leaked from the media are often inflated because they count the amount of divorces as related to the amount of marriages in a given year, which gives a skewed outcome.  What you really want to calculate, they say, is the amount of people who were ever married who get divorced.  This could mean that someone who’s been married for thirty years finally decides to give in and divorce, so you get a true, long term picture.

Of course, you can imagine the difficulties in getting an accurate number that way too, because it would be tough to gauge that over that long of a period.  However, knowing what they do know about the rate of divorce, they say that the figure has never really gone above 41%, at least not in the recent years.  The idea that our culture is one of giving up and divorcing at the slightest hint of trouble holds water though, as the divorce rate has gone up significantly from what it was say in the thirties and forties, when divorce was truly a last resort.

Many people would hang in there on marriages that were really a mess, simply because there was such a stigma attached to divorcing back then.  Now, with the quickie divorces, and it being known for being so commonplace, people seem to be divorcing left and right.  Just so you know, divorce can be economically devastating to men and women both, and statistics show that the retirement net worth is much higher for those that remain married, which is definitely an incentive to find the right partner from the beginning and stick with them til the end.

Although people change, you should really get to know the person before marrying them so that you know for sure you can live together and truly enjoy eachother’s company.  This will reduce the odds of your marriage ending in a divorce. It can be painful when there are children involved also, so people sticking together and doing it happily is key to making marriage last.  Plus a little spice in the bedroom never hurts.  Always keep your sex life interesting, and your partner will mean all that much more to you.