There are those who believe that the divorce rate is always rising, but they are likely just repeating outdated statistics. The reality is the divorce rate has been dropping for decades.
There are some age groups where this isn’t true. For instance, the one age group with a rising divorce rate is 50 and older. However, younger couples are certainly getting divorced less often.
Why is this happening? Are people just happier in their marriages? It seems unlikely that there would have been this type of emotional shift, so what really changed the divorce rate?
Marriage is viewed differently
The real reason for the declining rate is probably just a change in the way that people look at marriage itself. It used to be that people would get married at a relatively young age, often in their early 20s or perhaps just after they graduated from high school. They thought of this as the beginning of building a life together – getting married, moving out of their parents’ homes, starting careers, buying their own homes, having children, etc.
But now people are more likely to get married at a later age — often in their 30s. This means that the other parts of their life are much more stable by the time they tie the knot. They’ve already had time to get settled in a job, and they may even already have children together. Often, younger couples will just cohabitate, which was less common with previous generations. Some of them still break up, but they don’t need to get divorced because they are not married.
That said, divorce is never going away entirely, and it can be very complicated. Those who are going through this process should have experienced guidance to protect their rights and help them work toward the agreements they’re seeking.