Poor New Jersey — derided for “Jersey Shore,” aggressive driving and talking too fast. But when it comes to happily ever after, the Garden State is No. 1.
A recent U.S. Census report shows the Northeast — and New Jersey in particular — has the lowest divorce rate in America, trailed closely by New York.
The Bible Belt, meanwhile, home to Southern hospitality, church telethons and country music, has more “shotgun” weddings and the most divorces.
“People assume that people in the Northeast divorce easily because they’re less religious, but that’s not the case,” said Deborah Carr, a professor of sociology at Rutgers University.
In the Northeast, 7.2 per 1,000 men and 7.5 per 1,000 women got divorced. In the South, the rates were 10.2 for men and 11.1 for women. New Jersey’s rates were 6.1 for men and 6 for women, according to the 2009 American Community Survey, which released the data in August.
The South sees more divorce for several reasons, Carr said:
• First, Southerners tend to marry young, partly due to a lower rate of college attendance.
• Second, couples don’t usually move in together while unwed, a trend tied to religious beliefs. They often frown upon birth control, and are “more likely to have nonmarital pregnancies, which … then trigger ‘shotgun’ marriages.”
• Third, there are simply more marriages in the South. New Jersey had the second-lowest marriage rates, just above Maine. The Census survey reported that, while New Jersey’s marriage rate is 14.8 for men and 13.3 for women, Georgia’s is 22.1 and 20.4, respectively.
Though the South’s marriage rate is 20.3, the West is highest, at 20.7. Wyoming was the single state with the highest marriage rates for both men (30.7) and women (28.7). And though it’s not a Southern state, Alaska ranks like one, with the highest divorce rate for women, at 16.2. (For men, it’s Arkansas at 13.5.)
The national median age for a woman’s first marriage is 26.5 and 28.4 for men. (RNS)
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