On average, first marriages that end in divorce last about eight years, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau, which also said most Americans eventually marry but are marrying later and are slightly more likely to marry more than once.
People born in the leading edge of the baby boom experienced high divorce rates in the 1970s and 1980s, the bureau said in a September news release. About 38 percent of men born from 1945 to 1954 and 41 percent of women in the same age group had been divorced by 2004.
Among the results of the census survey:
- About one in five Americans have been divorced.
- Only 49.5 percent of men and 46.4 percent of women who married in the late 1970s were still married 25 years later.
- The percentage of people who celebrated their 15th anniversary had declined in 2004 compared to previous years.
- The median time between divorce and a second marriage was about 3.5 years.
- In 2004, 12 percent of men and 13 percent of women had married twice and 3 percent each had married three or more times.
“People are at risk of divorce throughout their marriages. That risk probably peaks in years 5 through 10,” Andrew Cherlin, a sociology professor at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, told USA Today. “Lots of divorces are occurring after the first decade of marriage. It’s not the case that if you make it through the first 10 years, your marriage is divorce-proof.”
The Census Bureau’s statistics were gathered in 2004 from 27,000 men and 32,000 women as part of the bureau’s Survey of Income and Program Participation. For more information, visit www.census.gov. (BP)
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