Women who have lived with more than one partner before their first marriage are 40 percent more likely to get divorced than women who have never cohabitated prior to marriage. Although cohabitation seems like good practice for married life, it can tend to make living together during marriage seem less permanent. According to the Brown University Population and Training Center, a marriage preceded by cohabitation has a better chance of success when the couple became officially engaged prior to moving in together.
May 2010 Archives
If you have twins or triplets, your marriage is 17 percent more likely to end in divorce than parents of children who were not multiple births. According to the Twins and Multiple Births Association, multiple births create money woes within families, which induces stress in the household.
Women who have been diagnosed with cervical cancer have a 40 percent likelihood of getting divorced, whereas men who have been diagnosed with testicular cancer have a 20 percent likelihood. Norwegian Cancer Registry researchers suspect that these statistics exist because these two types of cancer affect sexual activity and afflict mainly younger people. Conversely, breast cancer survivors, who are typically older, are 8 percent less likely to divorce.
According to the Delaware-Johns Hopkins Project for the Study of Intelligence and Society, a person of "below average" intelligence is 50 percent more likely to be divorced than one of "above average" intelligence. Spouses with IQs of 100 have a 28 percent probability of divorce in the first five years of marriage, as compared to a 9 percent probability for those with IQs of 130 or higher.
If a wife is two or more years older than her husband, her marriage is 53 percent more likely to end in divorce than if her husband was one to three years younger. According to the Melbourne Institute researchers, wide age gaps between spouses can create many problems, including sexual discord. Because our society is focused on personal satisfaction and happiness, marriage partners are less likely to be satisfied with one who is not their chronological or physical equal.
If both spouses have had previous marriages, they are 90 percent more likely to get divorced than if they are both in their first marriage, according to the Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research. Although a great deal of data indicates that second marriages should be statistically more successful that first marriages, serial marriers (think Elizabeth Taylor) skew the statistics.
Wayne County is a rural county on the Indiana and Ohio border that leads the nation in annual percentage of divorced residents. According to the U.S. Census Bureau's 2008 report, 19.2 percent of marriages in Wayne County end in divorce. Monoe County in Florida, which includes the Florida Keys, takes second place in the nation with an 18% divorce rate.
According to the Barna Research Group, atheists have a 30 percent divorce rate, compared to a 38 percent chance for non-Christians. Conversely, evangelical Christians have a 26 percent likelihood of being divorced, compared to Catholics at 28 percent.
If you have a daughter rather than a son, you are nearly 5 percent more likely to divorce, according to research conducted by the Council on Contemporary Families. This statistic also multiplies with each new birth in the family. Researchers theorize that this statistic exists because fathers tend to become more invested in family life when they have boys.
If only one partner in a marriage is a smoker, the couple is 75 to 91 percent more likely to divorce than married partners who are fellow smokers. According to a study conducted by the Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, the more similar people are in their values, backgrounds, and life goals, the more likely they are to have a successful marriage. Many dissimilarities between partners can increase their divorce risk, from age to ethnicity to unhealthy habits such as smoking.