Red States Have Some Pretty High Divorce Rates

Some new census data has put a wrinkle in the high marriage rates in more conservative states. States like Utah and Arkansas may see more marriages than say New York, but they also have equally high rates of divorce to accompany those conservative social values.

The Huffington Post reports:

Maine, Alaska, Oklahoma, Kentucky and Nevada, ranked at the top for divorces, while Utah, Wyoming and Arkansas which had the highest marriage rates were also higher than average in marital breakups. New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts and New York ranked among the lowest in divorces.

North Dakota ranked among the top states in marriages while posting lower than average divorce rates.

Researchers speculate that there is less divorce in the Northeast because marriage is often delayed until later in life. Young men and women in the West and South however are all too quick to marry:

Surprisingly, the South and West, which we think of as more socially conservative, have higher rates of divorce than does the supposedly liberal East,” said Andrew Cherlin, a professor of sociology and public policy at Johns Hopkins University. “The reason is that young adults in the South and West tend to have less education and marry earlier, both of which lead to a higher risk of divorce.”

Marriage is on decline in general, with more and more younger couples opting to live together with marriage in the distance or not at all. The recession has also put a damper on the plans of many young people who are just scrounging to make a decent living. Merging finances, not to mention a life, with someone when one care barely procure a job is not a priority with many young people, and that’s probably for the best.