Marriage And Divorce In America
About 56 percent of all adult Americans, 111 million people, were married and
living with their spouse in 1998. About 10 percent of adults, 19.4 million people,
were "currently divorced" in 1998.
About 48 percent of marriages end in divorce today, down from 52 percent in
the 1970s and early 1980s.
In 1997, there were 2,384,000 marriages, or 8.9 marriages per 1,000 population.
The same year there were 1,163,000 divorces, or 4.3 divorces per 1,000 population.
The median age at first marriage is 24 for women and 25.9 for men. The median
age at re-marriage after divorce is 34.2 for women and 37.4 for men.
The median duration of marriage for divorcing couples in 1990 was 7.2 years.
Despite a high divorce rate, greater longevity means that a couple married
today is three times more likely to remain together for 50 years than
their grandparents or great-grandparents were in 1990.
Sources: U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, U.S. Census Bureau,
and American Demographics Magazine)
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