I am often asked what I think about the divorce rate.
Followed by the question, what do I think of the ‘fact’ that people don’t want
to get married anymore? So, I decided to address these questions and share my
point of view in this newsletter.
There is a pretty wide spread belief that the divorce rate
in the US is about 50%, right? A number of demographers (scientists), however,
believe that the rate is closer to 40%, maybe, if you study the statistics
about first marriages in particular.
To keep it simple, here is how the 50% divorce rate comes
about: the number all marriages per year
determines the ‘marriage rate’. The
number of all divorces per year determines the ‘divorce rate’. While these are not the same couples getting
married and divorced in that year the ratio of the number of divorces to the
number of marriages provides the ‘divorce rate’ for that year. More simply, 100 marriages, 50 divorces = 50%
divorce rate.
Simple, yes? But not
really.
