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Marriage and divorce statistics are caused by a number of factors.
Marriage has been considered as a symbol of the formation of the family unit for a very long time. However, the trends in this family formation based on marriage and divorce statistics doesn’t always tell the whole story. There are legal alternatives to marriage now that have become more popular. Among them, registered partnerships, have forced the government to offer more rights to unmarried couples. The family unit is an ever-changing concept. It is becoming more difficult to find a universally agreed definition in today’s society according to statisticians.
Recent demographic data show that the number of marriages per 1 000 persons decreased within the United States in recent decades, while the number of divorces increased. An increase in the proportion of children who are born to unmarried couples was also apparent.
In 2011, 2.1 million marriages and 986 thousand divorces took place in the U.S. according to the most recent data. These marriage and divorce statistics may be shown as 4.2 marriages for every 1 000 persons, and 2.0 divorces for every 1000 persons.
Marriage has shown a decrease by almost 50% since 1965. At the same time, divorce rates have increased twice as much.
The amount of children born outside of marriage has also increased significantly since 1965. This increase signals new patterns of how families are formed today as opposed to how they were – primarily within marriages. Cohabitating couples and single parents are slowly outnumbering births inside of marriages in the United States and across the world. This information is obtained according to the mother’s marital status. It can be used to give a more accurate proportion of births outside of marriage.
Regardless of the statistics, marriage is not a dead institution. People are still getting married even if it is at a decreased rate. Now with the nation’s acceptance of same-sex marriage, the marriage and divorce statistics will be interesting to observe in the future. We will be witnessing more marriages just based on the passing of this new law. Additionally, people are still getting divorced and some of these will be due to these same-sex marriages. The ease of divorce through experienced divorce attorneys helps make this possible and less painful in most cases. It is also important to remember that is also possible to live to live ‘happily-ever-after-divorce.’
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