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According to new data from the U.S. Census, there are definitely states with more marriages or divorces than others.
DIVORCE
The place in the U.S. that has the fewest divorces is Puerto Rico - with 4.7 divorces per 1,000 girls and women of marrying age, according to 2019 Census data, the most recent available.
Back on the mainland, Maine and Washington, D.C., tie for each having the lowest divorce rate at 4.8 divorces per 1,000 females ages 15 and up.
The states with the highest divorce rates are:
- Arkansas where the rate is 10.7
- Oklahoma, 10.4
- Nevada, 10.2
- New Mexico, 10.2
- Kentucky, 10.1.
Among the states in the Daily Voice coverage area - Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania - Connecticut has the most divorces with a rate of 7.1 failed marriages per 1,000 girls and women ages 15 and up.
- Massachusetts’ divorce rate is 6.4
- New Jersey is 6.3
- New York and Pennsylvania tied with 6.1 divorces per 1,000 females of marrying age.
Between 2009 and 2019, the most recent information available, the divorce and marriage rates in the U.S. consistently went down, according to the Census.
Americans got married at a rate of 16.3 new marriages per 1,000 females of marrying age in 2019.
That same, year the U.S. experienced 7.6 divorces per 1,000 girls and women of marrying age (some states allow girls as young as age 15 to marry).
The common knowledge that half of every marriage ends in a divorce came from the 1990s. At that time, a popular study noted that if the divorce rate is half the marriage rate then that must mean half of all marriages end before “death do we part,” according to a deep dive by Politifact. The myth-busting news program found that, on average, somewhere between 40 and 50 percent of marriages end in divorce.
MARRIAGE
Whereas some states seem to be better at keeping married couples together than others, some states seem to be more romantic, or at least ready-to-wed, than others.
The states with the highest rates of marriages per 1,000 girls and women ages 15 and up are:
- Utah, 20.7
- Colorado and Washington, 20.9 each
- Washington, D.C., 21.4
- Wyoming, 22.3.
The states with the fewest marriages mostly reside in the local area, but the state with the fewest weddings overall is Delaware with just 11.7 new marriages per 1,000 girls and women ages 15 and up in 2019. Here are the local marriage rates:
- Massachusetts, 15.3
- Pennsylvania, 15
- New York, 14.3
- New Jersey, 14
- Connecticut and Rhode Island, 12.4 each.
To see past years' marriage and divorce rates, visit the Census online.
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