Divorce, once shrouded by shame and the tarnishing of one’s social reputation, has undergone a drastic makeover in the past four decades. Marriage, in turn, is no longer emblematic of a shiny, celebratory rite of passage. It is now viewed as an unnecessary luxury at best, and an entirely preventable, soul-sucking disaster at worst.
The latest statistics on divorce in America are revealed in a Pew Research Center report. Divorce rates have been steadily declining after peaking in 1980. That year, there were 22.6 divorces per 1,000 married women; by 2023, this number had shrunk to 14.4 divorces. One-third of Americans who have been married will experience divorce, which is a far cry from the “50 percent” statistic we’ve all surely heard before.
