While there are countless divorce studies with conflicting statistics, the data points to two periods during a marriage when divorces are most common: years 1 – 2 and years 5 – 8. Of those two high-risk periods, there are two years in particular that stand out as the most common years for divorce — years 7 and 8.
48 percent of those who marry before the age of 18 are likely to divorce within 10 years, compared to 25 percent of those who marry after the age of 25. 44. 60 percent of couples married between the age of 20 -25 will end in divorce. 45.
It is no surprise, then, that marital infidelity is a leading cause of divorce. Just how common is marital infidelity? According to a study from the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy, as many as 25 percent of married men and 15 percent of married women have had extramarital affairs.
Males are more likely to divorce between the age of 45-49, and females between the age of 40-44. This is a change from information gathered in 2016, when the most common age for couples to divorce was between the age of 25 and 29.
According to a team of researchers from Pennsylvania State and Brigham Young University, married couples reached their happiest point at the 20-year mark. For the study, scientists looked at relationship satisfaction in 2,034 marriages with an average age of 35-37.
The average length of a first marriage that ends in divorce is roughly eight years—7.8 years for men, 7.9 for women. Moving into second marriages that end in divorce, the timeline shortens somewhat. In these cases, the median length for men is 7.3 years, while for women it drops to 6.8 years.
What is the average length of marriage? On average, the length of a marriage in the U.S. is seven to eight years. Some states have a higher rate than others, but the divorce rate for the country is around 50%.
Statistics reveal that up to 33% of all Australian marriages are expected to end in divorce [1], and countless more relationships fall by the way side.
A study led by the American Sociological Association determined that nearly 70% of divorces are initiated by women. And the percentage of college-educated American women who initiated divorce is even higher.
In 2020, the median length from marriage to separation in Australia was 8.4 years. In the same year, the median duration of marriage to divorce was 12.1 years.
Married men earn more, save more, and generally have access to a second income. Consequently, they have much greater accumulated wealth than their unmarried peers. In fact, the typical fiftysomething married man has three times the assets of his unmarried peer, about $167,000 compared to less than $49,000.”
The death rate was 1,735 per 100,000 for lifelong bachelors and 1,773 for divorced men. Married women had a death rate of 569 per 100,000, two-and-a-half times lower than the 1,482 rate for widows.
While many couples see remarriage as a second chance at happiness, the statistics tell a different story. According to available Census data, the divorce rate for second marriages in the United States is over 60% compared to around 50% for first marriages.
Gray (or grey) divorce refers to a divorce involving individuals who are 50 years of age or older. Many high-profile cases, such as Bill and Melinda Gates, Billy Ray and Tish Cyrus, and Arnold Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver, have brought attention to the growing number of gray divorces.
And many likely do last a lifetime, because couples fall into the trap of thinking that sexless marriages are “normal.” While they are common – estimates for the number of sexless marriages range from 10 to 20 percent of all marriages – if one or both partners are unhappy, that is never normal.
“The ideal age to get married, with the least likelihood of divorce in the first five years, is 28 to 32,” says Carrie Krawiec, a marriage and family therapist at Birmingham Maple Clinic in Troy, Michigan. “Called the 'Goldilocks theory,' the idea is that people at this age are not too old and not too young.”
Stage 2: Discovery
The first year of the relationship is the hardest stage, and even when you're living together, you still discover new things about each other every day.
There are many risk factors for divorce such as marrying at an early age, low income, low education level, cohabitation before marriage, no religious affiliation, being a minority race, insecurity and unstable mental health, multiple marriages, premarital pregnancy, and having divorced parents.
However, Queensland has the highest crude divorce rate in the nation — a long-standing title, with the gap widening further. There were 2.6 divorces granted per 1,000 people in Queensland. That's followed by WA at 2.2 (the national average), and 2.1 in NSW and SA.
This was the defining decade for divorce as the numbers reached an all-time high. In 1970, the rate was 3.5, and by 1972 it had jumped to 4 divorces for every 1,000 Americans. In 1976, it jumped to 5, and by 1979, the rate was 5.3 per 1,000 American, with 1,193,062 divorces that year.
Absent children, however, there less need to stay together. Couples without children divorce more often than couples that have at least one child, according to researchers, despite numerous studies that marital happiness nosedives in the first year or two after the birth of a child and sometimes never quite recoups.