144 years of marriage and divorce in the United States, in one chart
By Ana Swanson
23 June 2015
The Washington Post
We often hear that marriage rates in the U.S. are declining. But what do trends in marriage and divorce really look like
over the long run, and why?
In a new post, data tinkerer Randy Olson provides some clarity on those trends by pain-stakingly assembling and
analyzing data on marriage and divorce rates going back to before 1870 from the CDC's National Center for Health
Statistics.
Here is Olson’s graph of the number of marriages and divorces per every 1,000 people in America since 1867:
Randy Olson
First, you can see that the common generalizations are true. As the chart shows, marriage rates have declined steadily
since the 1980s. Today they are lower than any other time since 1870, including during the Great Depression. However,
divorce rates today are actually slightly down compared with the 1970s, ’80s and ’90s on a per capita basis.
In addition, you can see that events like World War I, World War II and the Great Depression all had a significant impact
on marriage and divorce rates.
Couples rushed to the altar before the wars started, as well as at their conclusion. As Olson notes, divorces also spiked
after the conclusion of WWII, perhaps because some couples who had married rashly before the war realized their
differences.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/06/23/144-years-of-marriage-and-divorce-in-the-united-states-in-onechart/
The chart also shows an obvious drop in marriage rates during the Great Depression of the 1930s. Fewer jobs and less
economic stability appears to be a popular reason for not forming new families — a trend we also saw during the Great
Recession.
This second chart shows the raw counts for marriages and divorces (not adjusted per capita, like the first chart):
Randy Olsion
As Olson writes, the second chart makes clear that the dip in marriages and divorces in the 1960s that you see in the first
chart is due in part to the post-war population boom. A surge in Baby Boomers in the 1950s and 1960s greatly increased
the population; since the Boomers were almost all too young to marry, the per capita marriage rate declined. Once the
Boomers got old enough to tie the knot, marriage rates rose back to pre-WWII levels.
Discussion Questions:
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How do economic and political events impact marriage rates?
Describe the trend in marriage rates over the past few decades.
Describe the trend in divorce rates over the past few decades.
What effects could low marriage & relatively high divorce rates have on society?
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/06/23/144-years-of-marriage-and-divorce-in-the-united-states-in-onechart/