You’re aware that things aren’t going well between you and your spouse. The last time you spoke, your partner appeared stern, aloof, and resentful. In this article, we looked at the top 10 reasons for divorce. You expect them to come around, blow off some steam, and return to their normal self with time. Instead, you come home one day to find their clothes missing from their cupboards and a piece of paper; a divorce notice on the dinner table.
What Causes Divorce in Marriage?
Some of the most common top reasons for divorce are infidelity, a lack of communication; financial difficulties, and sparing sex and intimacy sessions. Using data from 4,000 divorced adults, the Austin Institute for The Study of Family and Culture identified the top reasons; for divorce as to why people break up in the United States to include infidelity by either party; spouse unresponsive to needs; incompatibility; spouse immaturity; emotional abuse, and financial problems.
Why do Couples Divorce?
There are certain characteristics in a partner or circumstances- the divorce causes- that may force partners to seek a divorce. You can no longer deal with your partner, and divorce may be your best option. When a couple feels they have given their relationship everything they have; they may come to the conclusion that it is time to end their marriage.
Do you believe this scenario could happen in your life? It’s not uncommon for couples to fight and reconcile until they finally split up. Don’t ignore your relationship problems. You never know, your relationship could be on a rocky path as well!
What Percentage of Marriages End in Divorce?
The picture of what percentage of top reasons why marriages end in divorce may appear predictably low; but the reality is that approximately 50% of marriages in the United States end in divorce. Not only that, but statistics show that most couples divorce within the first seven years of marriage. So, what is the most common year of marriage for divorce?
It is said that as a couple approaches their tenth anniversary, marital satisfaction increases. If you believe you know the top reasons why people divorce or how many marriages end in divorce; you may be correct. However, there are some reasons to get a divorce that you could never have predicted.
Top 10 Reasons for Divorce
Despite the fact that the divorce rate is decreasing, it’s interesting to learn about the factors that contribute to divorce; whether it’s a lack of support from family and friends or an extramarital affair.
With the help of a study conducted by researchers at the University of Denver; we collaborated with the Data team to help parse the leading top reasons for divorce. The study surveyed 52 people (31 women and 21 men) who had participated in PREP; a “prevention and relationship enhancement program” that emphasized teaching couples communication and conflict resolution skills.
The course occurred before the couples married, but the study surveyed individuals who divorced 14 years after PREP. It aimed to learn why their marriage had failed, and whether it was due to a combination of factors or a “final straw.”
Based on individual responses, here are their findings.
10. Lack of or insufficient premarital education, as well as religious differences — 13.3 percent
Despite the fact that all those polled had taken PREP, an educational course, a sizable proportion felt it was insufficient. “I probably wish we had more premarital counseling and someone telling us that we shouldn’t be getting married,” one participant said. Another participant stated that, while the course was beneficial in terms of communication, it was unrealistic in terms of marriage growth. “Premarital counseling teaches you how to get along and how to communicate; however, it does not really discuss the stages of a marriage over time.”
In terms of religious differences, according to a Pew Center survey, currently 69 percent of married people say their spouse shares their religion. Couples in interfaith marriages are less happy on average than those in same-faith marriages, according to Fox News and the book “Til Faith Do Us Part: How Interfaith Marriage is Transforming America.”
9. Lack of family support — 17.3 percent
According to the Huffington Post, according to a 26-year longitudinal study of 373 couples, a husband who has a close relationship with his wife’s family reduces the risk of divorce by 20%. A wife’s close relationship with her husband’s family, on the other hand, increased the risk of divorce. “Wives should maintain boundaries with their in-laws and husbands; should remember to take care of their in-laws and treat them as important,” says the study’s researcher, psychologist and professor Terri Orbuch.
8. Health issues account for 18.2 percent of the total.
Illnesses can be harmful to a marriage, according to Elizabeth Ochoa, a marriage counselor and chief psychologist at Beth Israel Medical Center in New York City. “Illnesses cause debt, pain, and loss of self-esteem. It could mean that one partner is unable to keep his or her end of the bargain, in which case the other partner must step up. Some couples will cope with it better than others “According to Health.com.
7. Domestic violence accounted for 23.5 percent of all cases.
Almost a quarter of survey respondents cited physical and emotional abuse in their marriages as a major cause of divorce. Many respondents described how the abuse evolved over time, with more intense cycles of abuse followed by strong remorse. “There were moments when I felt physically threatened. There was a time when there was some pushing and shoving. I got an elbow up against my nose… We’d look into it. It was bound to happen again “one of them stated
According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNDOC), 50,000 women were intentionally killed in 2017 by a romantic partner or family member.
6. Substance abuse accounted for 34.6 percent of the total.
Substance abuse was cited as an issue by at least one partner in 50 percent of the former couples surveyed by Scott and her team: 34.6 percent of individuals overall did, but only 33.3 percent of cases did both partners agree that substance abuse was to blame for their divorce. “He never admitted to drinking. It wasn’t me versus him. It was just me versus him and the disease “one participant explained
12.1 percent of those who said their marriage had reached its “final straw” said it was due to substance abuse.
5. Financial difficulties — 36.1 percent
According to some study participants, while financial problems were a significant contributing factor, they were not the “most pertinent reason for divorce.” Instead, the money problems “contributed to increased stress and tension within the relationship.”
According to Forbes, having opposing “money styles” can be harmful to a couple. When trying to decide where your paychecks go, tensions can arise if one person is a spender and the other is a saver. It’s critical to figure out how to use disparate habits to complement one another. For example, the saver may be in charge of retirement planning, whereas the spender is in charge of short-term spending.
4. Marrying too young — 45.1 percent
Those who cited their age as a problem in the study were an average of 23.3 years old at the time of marriage. Marriage age has changed dramatically over the last 50 years, according to the Pew Research Center. In 1960, 59% of those aged 18 to 29 were married. Fifty years later, in 2010, that figure had dropped to 20%. In 2011, the median age for a man’s first marriage was 28.7, and 26.5 for a woman. Both were in their early twenties fifty years ago.
3. Too much arguing and conflict — 57.7 percent
Participants in the survey revealed that, in general, their conflicts were not resolved calmly or effectively — and that this situation only worsened over time. “Communication problems increased in frequency and intensity throughout their marriages,” they reported, “which at times seemed to coincide with lost feelings of positive connections and mutual support.” “I got frustrated by arguing too much,” one participant put it succinctly.
2. Extramarital affairs or infidelity — 59.6 percent
“Infidelity was frequently cited as a critical turning point in a deteriorating relationship,” according to the study. In fact, it was the most frequently cited “final straw” by participants. According to reports, some of the most common reasons for cheating are feelings of neglect, insecurity, or a fear of abandonment.
1. A lack of commitment — 75%
Even though some may argue that marriage is the ultimate commitment, 75% of those polled stated that a lack of commitment played a role in the demise of their marriage.
“I realized it was my lack of commitment because I didn’t feel romantically attracted to him. I always felt he was more of a friend to me “one participant explained.
Top Reasons for Divorce Statistics
Here are few reasons for divorce statistics:
1. Couples are more likely to divorce if one partner is a heavy drinker and the other is not, rather than if both partners drink the same amount.
While it’s no secret that alcohol consumption has a significant impact on marital happiness, few can predict how much. According to a study conducted by the University of Buffalo Research Institute on Addictions, divorce occurred in nearly half of all couples where only one partner used alcohol heavily.
At the same time, only 30% of couples divorced during the same study period when both partners were either heavy drinkers or neither was.
In other words, according to statistics on the most common reasons for divorce, couples who share similar drinking habits are more likely to stay married.
2. The current divorce rate in the United States is 3.2 per 1,000 people.
According to the CDC, the most recent year of available data is 2014, with 44 states and the District of Columbia reporting. The previously mentioned figure is known as the “crude divorce rate.”
On the one hand, this rate does not provide specific information about the proportion of first marriages that end in divorce. On the other hand, it is still useful for describing changes in divorce rates over time. However, many experts believe that the divorce rate per 1,000 married women is a far more accurate indicator of the actual divorce rate. Currently, the figure is 16.9.
3. Nearly 9% of 30-year-olds had already ended one marriage in 2018.
Furthermore, according to the Minnesota Population Center’s Integrated Public Microdata Sample project, divorce statistics 2018 show that 41.6 percent of respondents were over the age of 62 and had already been married multiple times, separated, or divorced.
Having said that, a close 42.3 percent of 62-year-olds said they were still in their first marriage. This study’s findings were not the only ones that were intriguing.
Respondents in their mid-40s and older, for example, were much more likely to be in a later marriage; separated or divorced in 2018 than people of equivalent age in previous decades (especially the 1960s and 1980s).
4. In the United States, experts estimate that your chances of divorce are 39%, compared to the mythical 50% in the 1980s.
The question of how many marriages end in divorce is one that people all over the United States are constantly asking. There’s a good reason for this, given that you’ve probably heard about the infamous “half of all marriages end in divorce” myth. While this frightening statistic was true at one point (during the 1980s), it is no longer accurate today. The current decline in divorce rates is primarily due to Millennials, who appear to be keeping their marital vows much more frequently than their parents.
Nonetheless, young people in 2016 were 18% less likely to divorce than their counterparts in 2008. The fact that marriage is becoming more selective among Millennials is the most significant reason for the steady decline in divorces since the 1980s.
5. According to United Nations divorce statistics, the United States has the third-highest divorce rate in the world.
Furthermore, the average first-time marriage lasts eight years before ending in divorce. Furthermore, the most common reason for divorce in marriage is that it lasts less than eight years. Surprisingly, up to 60% of those who marry for the second time also divorce.
6. Nevada has the highest divorce rate in the country, while Iowa has the lowest.
Nevada has the highest overall divorce rate in the United States, with 5.6 divorces per 1,000 people (crude rate). According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Iowa has only 2.4 divorces for every 1,000 people.
Also, the states with the highest divorce rates are Arkansas, Oklahoma, and West Virginia (5.3, 5.2, and 5.2, respectively). States such as Illinois, Massachusetts, North Dakota, and Pennsylvania, on the other hand, have the lowest rates in the country (2.6, 2.7., 2.7, and 2.8 per 1,000 people, respectively).
However, states such as Minnesota, Louisiana, Indiana, Hawaii, Georgia, and California do not report their divorce statistics to the CDC. As a result, you should take the preceding information with a grain of salt.
7. According to divorce statistics, over 1 million women divorced in the United States in 2018.
According to a Bowling Green State University study, the exact number was 1,050,599. In the same report, the divorce rate continued to fall in the same year, reaching a 40-year low.
8. According to divorce statistics in America, the prevalence of divorce for people over the age of 45 has been on the rise since the 1990s.
According to University of Maryland professor Philip Cohen, the prevalence of divorce among people under the age of 45 appears to be leveling off during the same time period. Because Americans in general have become more accepting of not only living together before marriage but also getting divorced, the drop in prevalence appears all the more remarkable.
According to Professor Cohen’s research, having children in the household, being under 25 years old, having a BA degree or higher education, and being in a first marriage are all among the top reasons for divorce statistics. Simultaneously, the study predicts that the divorce rate in the United States will continue to fall.
9. According to marriage divorce statistics, a divorce occurs every 36 seconds somewhere in the United States.
Furthermore, this statistic equates to nearly 2,400 divorces occurring in the country every single day.
You can go even further with the math: Whether the figure is presented as 16,800 divorces per week or 876,000 divorces per year, it still represents a significant number of people permanently separating.
But there’s another way to look at this amazing fact. When only first marriages are considered, the current divorce rate is 41%. When it comes to second marriages, the percentage rises significantly, with divorce occurring in 60% of the cases. Finally, 73 percent of third marriages end in divorce, which is significant.
10. Between 1867 and 1879, there were as few as 0.3 divorces for every 1,000 Americans.
Marriage and divorce statistics, it’s no secret, provide a fascinating insight into the behavior of people looking to spend their lives with a partner. While this behavior has been around since the beginning of time, there is something a little surprising about the whole thing.
In earlier centuries, for example, people frequently married to advance in social class or gain property rights. However, by the mid-to-late 1800s, the concepts of romance and love had taken over as the primary reasons for marriage.
At the same time, getting married for a different reason does not guarantee that you will stay married: Only 17,000 Americans divorced in 1879, an increase from 10,000 in the entire year of 1867. Divorce percentages show that as time passed, the annual divorce rate steadily increased to 0.7 divorces per 1,000 people for the rest of the century.
11. Child support agreements are signed by approximately 30% of all custodial fathers, compared to more than 50% of custodial mothers.
Children of divorce statistics are equally depressing, with more than 13.4 million parents living apart in 2018 from the other parent with children under the age of 21. Mothers make up five out of every six custodial parents, with half of those receiving child support.
In 2010, the average monthly child support payment in the United States was $430. This figure, however, is known to vary significantly depending on the incomes of both the custodial and noncustodial parents.
12. The average age of a couple going through their first divorce is 30.
When looking at divorce statistics by age, people between the ages of 25 and 39 account for 60% of all divorces in the United States. The wives file for divorce in 66 percent of cases, though this figure has risen to 75 percent in recent years.
Similarly, 15 percent of adult women in the United States are either separated or divorced, compared to less than 1% in 1920. Regardless of whether they were married or not, one-quarter of Americans aged 18 and under have experienced some form of marital dissolution.
13. 8 percent of poor-income parents are married, while sixteen percent are simply cohabiting.
According to a Pew Research study, 27 percent of single parents are poor. Given the foregoing, the divorce rate in America in 2019 remains high, but the situation becomes even direr when children are involved.
According to the same study, by the age of nine, more than half of children born to cohabiting parents will have experienced a parental breakup. This statistic contrasts sharply with the ratio of children born within a marriage, which is only one in every five. According to a Brookings Institute study, there is also a 50-50 chance that a cohabiting couple will have a child by chance.
14. Communication issues are among the top five reasons for divorce, according to statistics.
When it comes to the top reasons for divorce statistics, you’ve probably heard of celebrities and other prominent public figures citing “irreconcilable differences” as the most common reason for a marriage’s demise.
While this may or may not be true in the case of such prominent public figures, statistics show that the top reasons for divorce are slightly different. Loss of interest, physical, emotional, and psychological abuse, financial difficulties, and betrayal or infidelity are all examples.
One in every four families today faces divorce, and approximately 6% of American couples marry, divorce, and then re-marry.
Top Reasons for Divorce in America
Marriage and divorce are both common adult experiences, though both can be difficult. By the age of 50, approximately 90% of people in Western cultures marry. The United States has the sixth-highest divorce rate in the world, with approximately 50% of married couples divorcing. Divorce rates in subsequent marriages are even higher: 60% of second marriages end in divorce, and 73% of all third marriages end in divorce.
The average age of a couple going through their first divorce is 30 years old. Several factors influence whether or not a couple will divorce. Couples married between the ages of 20 and 25 are 60% more likely to divorce. Those who wait until they are over the age of 25 to marry are 24 percent less likely to divorce. Those who hold strong religious beliefs are 14% less likely to divorce. The higher one’s educational attainment, the lower one’s risk of divorce.
Related Articles: COMMUNICATION IN MARRIAGE: BEST PRACTICES & ALL YOU NEED (UPDATED)
According to a survey conducted by the United States Census Bureau, the top three reasons for divorce are incompatibility (43 percent), infidelity (28 percent), and financial issues (22 percent ). Every year, the divorce rate rises in March and August. The Northeastern states have the lowest marriage and divorce rates, while the Southern and Western states have the highest marriage and divorce rates.
The states with the highest and lowest divorce rates in the United States are listed below. The reason why the divorce rate per population differs so greatly from the percentage of marriages that end in divorce. Because states see different numbers of marriages, this would result in two completely different lists of rankings. In Illinois, for example, the divorce rate is the lowest in the country, but less than 65 percent of people are married. Over 72 percent of people in Idaho and Arkansas, where divorce rates are higher, are married.
Summary
No marriage is simple. Even the best-intentioned couples are sometimes unable to overcome their difficulties and end up in court. That is why it is critical to address issues in your relationship as soon as possible; don’t let them become one of the reasons for divorce. Don’t put it off until they’re beyond repair.
Try your hardest before deciding that things are out of your hands; there are far too many reasons for divorce, and it is time to give up. That way, you can rest easy knowing that you exhausted all options before taking the big step. Divorce is one of the most painful emotional experiences you can have, but it is sometimes unavoidable and for the best.
To keep your relationship healthy and long-lasting, practice kindness, prioritize intimacy, go on vacation, and seek marriage counseling (even if everything is fine).
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the #1 cause of divorce?
Lack of commitment, infidelity, and conflict/arguing were the most commonly reported major contributors to divorce. Infidelity, domestic violence, and substance abuse were the most common “final straw” reasons.
At what point do most marriages fail?
According to studies, the majority of marriages that fail (roughly 10%) fail within the first two years. Researchers concluded, based on data from 11,000 divorce cases, that men are more likely to cheat on their wives during this stage of the marriage, resulting in an increase in infidelity divorces.
