What Class of People Have the Highest Divorce Rates?
- Non-Christians have a 38 percent divorce rate, according to the Barna Group. This includes 30 percent who classified themselves as agnostic or atheists, although the researchers admit that this statistic might be distorted because atheists and agnostics also have a much lower marriage rate . Protestants divorce more than Catholics, which the Barna Group found to be the least likely faith to divorce. The Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance indicates that those of the Jewish faith have a 30 percent divorce rate.
- African-Americans are somewhat more likely to divorce than Caucasians, 36 percent to 32 percent. Those of Asian ethnicity have the lowest divorce rates, only 20 percent. The Hispanic divorce rate is 31 percent.
- The Barna Group found that those who consider themselves liberal have higher divorce rates than conservatives. Among liberals, the divorce rate is 37 percent. Among conservatives, it is only 28 percent.
- Financial difficulties appear to contribute to divorce. Only 22 percent of couples earning $75,000 a year or more divorce, but 39 percent of those with incomes less than $20,000 a year break up. College graduates have a lower divorce rate than partners who did not attend college, and among college-educated couples, women initiate the divorce 90 percent of the time.
- Those who live in the south and Midwest portions of the United States divorce more often than those in the northeast. The northeast has only a 19 percent divorce rate. According to Assisted Divorce, the states with the highest rates are Nevada, Arkansas, Wyoming, Tennessee and Oklahoma. Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York, Rhode Island and Vermont average about 3.5 divorces per 1,000 of their populations.
- Those who marry under the age of 30 are more likely to divorce than those who are over 30 when they marry. Baby boomers born between 1945 and 1955 have a 38 percent divorce rate.