“U.S. marriages in the early 2010s are more stable than during any other decade since the 1950s….15 percent of couples that married between 2010 and 2012 were divorced after 10 years, down from a high of 30 percent in the 1970s,” reports The Doomslayer. Contrary to the mantra that 50% of all marriages end in divorce, it looks like recent marriages will have about a 40% divorce rate, down from the 50% rate of the 1970s and 1980s, but still above the divorce rate for people who got married in the 1950s.
The Institute for Family Studies adds:
The fortunes of marriage have changed in recent years. Marital stability looks much different than it did 30 years ago. Using the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP), we found that new marriages are stronger today than every decade since the 1950s. While new marriages in the 2000s initially resembled those from the 1990s, divorce rates slowed down after 5 years into marriage. By 20 years in, marriages in the 2000s were performing similarly to those from the 1960s.
We’ve been witnessing an increase in marital stability since the end of the 1970s. And so far, marriages formed in the 2010s are sticking to this trend. Using the SIPP, we estimate that just 15% of marriages formed between 2010 and 2012 were divorced after 10 years. We found slightly lower 10-year survival rates for marriages from the 2010s using the American Community Survey, with about 19% divorcing. Compare this to 30% of marriages dissolving after 10 years from the 1970s. While not quite at 1950s levels (which saw only 14% of marriages dissolve after 10 years), the future of this new cohort looks much more stable.
That is, in part, because marriages formed between 2010 and 2012 have already put the hardest years behind them. Among 21st century new marriages, peak marital instability happens early on and earlier than those formed in the latter half of the 20th century. For instance, marriages formed in the 1970s saw peak marital instability around 8 to 10 years in. But for marriages made in the 2000s, divorce risk peaked around 5 years. Yearly risk of divorce has trended downward since.
