Experts attribute Carroll County?s high divorce rate to an increase in the number of couples living together before marriage.
More than half of all first marriages nationwide are preceded by living together, but those who live together are more likely to break up after marriage, according to Rutgers University?s State of Our Unions 2006 report, a nonpartisan initiative that researches marriage and educates the public on the social and economic conditions affecting marital success.
In Carroll County, 70 percent of couples who were married in fiscal 2005 were living together at the time of marriage, according to the circuit court clerk?s office.
Carroll?s average of 50.6 divorces per 100 marriages is higher than state and national figures of 42.9 and 47.5, respectively.
Del. Tanya Shewell, R-District 5A, co-sponsored a bill this year with Baltimore City Del. Curt Anderson, D-District 43, that would extend the waiting period for a marriage license to become effective from the second calendar day to the 30th calendar day after the license is issued if the couple does not submit a certificate verifying that the pair has completed a premarital preparation course.
The bill never made it out of committee, but Shewell said she and Anderson are considering crafting another bill next year that would give an income tax reduction for couples who complete a premarital preparation course.
“Everybody is going to have problems, but if you know how to deal with them, you can keep your marriage intact,” Shewell said.
In Carroll, a total of 524 couples split last year, compared with 522 in 2004 and 467 in 2003.
With numbers like those, “we can?t take for granted [Carroll?s] conservative roots,” said resident Amy Gilford, referring to Carroll?s Republican-dominated voters.
Gilford runs Carroll County Marriage Savers ? a faith-based, nonprofit that organizes counseling and marriage preparation courses with the aim of lowering divorce rates ? with her parents, Bill and Anne McKenna.
Bill McKenna said higher divorce numbers may reflect a growing population.
The family also pointed to the higher instances of cohabitation, or unmarried men and womenliving together and having a sexual relationship, as a factor that hurts the chances of marriages lasting nationwide.
By the numbers
» Anne Arundel
2003
Marriages: 3,633
Divorces: 2,079
2004
Marriages: 3,615
Divorces: 2,025
2005
Marriages: 3,476
Divorces: 1,729
» Baltimore City
2003
Marriages: 5,263
Divorces: 2,669
2004
Marriages: 5,078
Divorces: 2,537
2005
Marriages: 4,940
Divorces: 2,433
» Baltimore County
2003
Marriages: 5,423
Divorces: 3,127
2004
Marriages: 5,354
Divorces: 2,979
2005
Marriages: 5,872
Divorces: 3,124
» Carroll
2003
Marriages: 942
Divorces: 467
2004
Marriages: 1,003
Divorces: 522
2005
Marriages: 992
Divorces: 524
» Harford
2003
Marriages: 1,448
Divorces: 792
2004
Marriages: 1,476
Divorces: 798
2005
Marriages: 1,466
Divorces: 822
» Howard
2003
Marriages: 1,590
Divorces: 929
2004
Marriages: 1,559
Divorces: 939
2005
Marriages: 1,608
Divorces: 898
Source: Baltimore City and Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Carroll, Harford and Howard counties? Clerk of the Circuit Courts
