If a couple wants to minimize their risk of getting divorced in the first five years of their marriage, a new study suggests that they get married between the ages of 28 and 32.
University of Utah sociologist Nick Wolfinger conducted the study, which was published by the Institute of Family Studies. He analyzed data from 2006 to 2010, and from the 2011-2013 National Survey of Family Growth. Wolfinger found that those who got married between the ages of 28 and 32 had the lowest incidence of divorce in the ensuing years. For each year after the age of 32, the chance of divorce increases by about 5%, according to the study.
What’s interesting about the study is the fact that it challenges what sociologists have previously thought — that the longer a couple waited to get married, the more likely they were to stay together.
“The odds of divorce decline as you age from your teenage years through your late twenties and early thirties,” Wolfinger writes. “Thereafter, the chances of divorce go up again as you move into your late thirties and early forties.”
On a more depressing note, analysis previous statistical data not found from Wolfinger’s study has found factors that increase the risk of divorce. For example, if you’re American, your marriage is 40-50% more likely to end in divorce. If you live in a state that predominantly votes for the Republican Party, you’re 27% more likely to get divorced. If you fight about finances once a week, your marriage is 30% more likely to end in divorce. If you have a daughter, you’re almost 5% more likely to divorce than if you have a son. Also, if you’re a woman, you’re more likely to be the one who files for divorce, as about two-thirds of all divorces are filed by women.
Although such findings might be disheartening, it’s important to remember that it’s all just statistical evidence. The study is only an analysis based on general trends. It doesn’t necessarily reflect the individual personal experience.
It’s also important to note, too, that the divorce rate in the United States has continued to decline since its peak in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
