National Center for Family and Marriage Research Family Profiles

Document Type

Report

Abstract

Although the divorce rate in the United States increased throughout much of the twentieth century, it has declined in recent decades. Here we explore the variation in women’s rate of divorce and the proportion of ever-married women separated/divorced from 1900 to 2022 using National Vital Statistics, Decennial Census, and American Community Survey data. We then examine the proportion of currently separated/divorced among ever-married women from 1940 to 2022, disaggregating trends by race/ethnicity and educational attainment. This profile is an update to FP-20-22 and a companion profile to FP-24-10, which details variation in marriage trends over the last century.

Publication Date

2024

Publisher

National Center for Family and Marriage Research

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