US: more weddings, fewer divorces – marriage rate back above pre-pandemic level
According to data from the US health agency CDC, there were 6.3 marriages and only 2.3 divorces per 1,000 people in 2024. Experts link the decline to later and more educated marriages.
Symbolic image · Photo: Dako99 / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped and resized)
Americans are marrying more often and divorcing less. That is shown by data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), analysed by news site Axios on 14 October. In 2024 there were 6.3 marriages per 1,000 inhabitants – more than the 6.1 recorded in 2019, before the pandemic. The divorce rate stood at 2.3 per 1,000 people, continuing its decades-long decline.
Looking only at married couples, the trend is even clearer: according to an Axios analysis of CDC and Census data, about 13 out of every 1,000 married Americans divorced in 2024. In 2008 the figure was around 19. The divorce wave expected after the lockdowns did not materialise nationally.
Jake Hays of the Pew Research Center attributes the development to the make-up of married couples. "Over time, the married population has shifted toward adults with higher levels of education," he said. They tend to marry later and are more economically stable, which is associated with fewer divorces. However, Hays said it is impossible to know for certain how divorce rates would have developed without the pandemic.
This article is for information only and is not legal, tax, financial or medical advice. Figures as of the date stated.