Are Marriage Statistics Divorced from Reality?

Do half of all marriages really end in divorce? It’s probably the most often quoted statistic about modern love, and it’s a total buzz kill, in line with saying that half of all new shoes will give you hammertoes or that 50% of babies will grow up to be ugly. Now the divorce stat is coming under scrutiny — and not just because of its unromanticity.

According to research at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, one of the clearest predictors of whether wedding vows will stick is the age of the people saying them.

Pam and I were married in 1984. They found that of couples who got married in the 80′s:

• 81% of college graduates who got hitched in that decade at age 26 or older were still married 20 years later.
• 65% of college grads who said “I do” before their 26th birthday made it that far.

Pam and I were both just out of college at age 22 (which seems so young now; we thought we knew the world back then.)

The national average age for couples marrying is rising. According to this article, that’s a good thin. They’re more likely to stay married.

Read the entire Time magazine article.

2 Comments

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