Divorce rates down in the US with one exception - the over 50s

American divorce rates remain the highest in the world, but have fallen significantly since their peak in 1979. There is, however, one group whose attitudes to matrimony have bucked the trend. Divorce rates among the over-fifties have doubled since 1990, according to research by the National Centre for Family and Marriage Research.

In 2010 one in four Americans who divorced was 50+. In 1990 it was fewer than one in ten.
For those over 65, the rate has tripled.

Most people who divorce after the age of 50 have already been through one marriage break-up.

I recently gave some ageing related insights to a US agency and commented on the subject of older divorces. I think the high rates of older people divorcing (certainly in the UK) results from the ‘is that it’ syndrome. Gazing across the table thinking is this going to be my life until the care home! One universal result of ageing is the appreciation of the ticking clock!

Maybe the UK and the US have more in common than they think. Dick Stroud