Highest Divorce Rates By State: New Data From 'Marital Events Of Americans: 2009' Report

A new report from the U.S. Census released Thursday suggests that divorce rates for men and women in the United States vary by region, and not necessarily in ways one might expect.

The findings, based on data collected by the American Community Survey in 2009 and published in a new report titled Marital Events of Americans: 2009, indicate that men and women in the southern United States have the highest divorce rates in the country, while those in the Northeast have the lowest (2009 is the most recent year for which Census data on this topic is available).

There are 10.2 divorces per 1000 men in the South (defined by the Census as Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Maryland, North and South Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, Alabama, Kentucky, Mississippi, Tennessee, Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Texas) and 11.1 per 1000 women--above the national average of 9.2 for men and 9.7 for women in 2009. In the Northeast (defined as Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Vermont, New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania) the rate is 7.2 per 1000 for men and 7.5 per 1,000 for women in 2009. Two notable exceptions are Alaska and Maine--two states where divorce rates for men and women rank in the top 10.

"Divorce rates tend to be higher in the South because marriage rates are also higher in the South," Diana Elliott, a family demographer at the Census Bureau, said in a statement. "In contrast, in the Northeast, first marriages tend to be delayed and the marriage rates are lower, meaning there are also fewer divorces."

According to the report, rate differences between men and women can be attributed to several factors: Women tend to live longer than men and marry older men. Conversely, men remarry more than women do, so their marriage rates tend to be higher.

The following states have the highest divorce rates in the country for men and women, respectively:

MEN:

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Arkansas

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Arkansas has the highest divorce rate in the country for men, with 13.5 divorces per 1000 men.

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Arkansas has the highest divorce rate in the country for men, with 13.5 divorces per 1000 men.

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WOMEN:

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Alaska

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With 16.2 divorces per 1000 women, Alaska has the highest divorce rate for women in the country.

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With 16.2 divorces per 1000 women, Alaska has the highest divorce rate for women in the country.

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Comments

[wakeup804]

10:06 AM on 08/30/2011

The top 10 are: Arizona, Tennessee, Georgia, Mississippi, Nevada, Kentucky, Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas and Oklahoma. So much for those Red State family values. And to think they want to force their BS down everyone's throats. Yeah right. SOME should clean up their own backyards FIRST, before they try to impose their non working values on the rest of us.

[SLCPunk]

06:44 PM on 08/29/2011

What? Are all the divorced men from Maine moving to Alaska? Or are the divorced women from Alaska moving to Maine? How, in a nation where gay marriage is mostly illegal, can these states not be exactly the same for men and women?

[SLCPunk]

06:57 PM on 08/29/2011

Oops. Should be the other way around.

[Ed Pacheco]

10:02 PM on 08/27/2011

how is Maine in the Bible belt

[carolinacookie4]

12:04 AM on 08/31/2011

Same way, according to them, that Washington, D.C. is in the south.

[Wonder Woman2]

02:47 PM on 08/27/2011

So the states with the highest rate of fundies not only have the highest teen pregnancies but the highest divorce rates. Yup we are really doing the wrong things up north.

[wakeup804]

10:08 AM on 08/30/2011

And the lowest number of educated people. If they would stop defunding PP all over their states maybe their teens could get the services they need. I'll take a pass on these type of values, my parents raised me better.

[Itz her]

09:16 AM on 08/27/2011

I think it also has to do with age. I have friends in the south around my age (22) where the pressure to get married seems a bit much in my eyes. I know there are some people who married young, AND stayed married (for example my grandma who did get married at my age and has been for about forty years). However, EVERYWHERE it seems like people in general really don't take the vows the say very seriously also.

[Venmaker1]

01:16 PM on 08/26/2011

Poor states with underperforming education systems and low wage jobs are represented here. I think there is a connection.

[wakeup804]

10:11 AM on 08/30/2011

There sure is....they are the future of the Grifter on Parade (GOP), uneducated with uneducated kids, not earning any money because they have no skills and no education, and yet they will still continue to vote for people that won't do squat to help them. Maybe it's me, but this is where an education is a good thing, if fosters critical thinking skills. Who in their right mind would vote for people that want to take away everything they NEED to improve their condition??????

[MeghanR]

12:36 PM on 08/26/2011

I find it interesting that the south has higher per capita divorce rates. Let's look at education in the southern states, they generally perform worse and are highly uneducated compared to the north. The South also has higher teen pregnancy rates, again due to lower education, or just poor misinformed education. Let's look at what states teach abstinence as well as creationism.

[wakeup804]

10:12 AM on 08/30/2011

It is funny to think they turn their noses up to science. Amazing. Maybe they should pray harder, huh?

[Jennifer Jongema Larson]

10:44 AM on 08/26/2011

"in the South (defined by the Census as Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Maryland, North and South Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, Alabama, Kentucky, Mississippi, Tennessee, Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Texas)"

Since when is Delaware, Maryland and Oklahoma considered part of the South?

[irishradical]

04:40 PM on 08/30/2011

All south of the Mason-Dixon line which historically has been the boundary

[Richard Lanum]

10:02 AM on 08/26/2011

Alaska, the state with the highest divorce ratio for woman, hmm. That is interesting. There are far more men than women.

[Spartan112]

07:32 AM on 08/26/2011

What about the divorce rate amongst cousins?

[wakeup804]

10:14 AM on 08/30/2011

That is low..........you know family is suppose to stick together. Plus let's be honest, if non relatives thought they had something going on, they would not have married their cousins in the first place. Marrying ones' relative screams of desparation, don't you think???

[Spartan112]

04:20 PM on 08/31/2011

Iffin' she ain't good enough for her own family how could she be good enough for a stranger?

[Zoydzz]

05:34 AM on 08/26/2011

I'm guessing but I'm pretty sure it has to do with conjugal things.

[Craig A Olson]

03:34 AM on 08/26/2011

Divorce is rare among Christians. But it is high among believers.

[WilmaJune]

03:48 PM on 08/26/2011

Your statements do not make sense.

[SLCPunk]

06:48 PM on 08/29/2011

Yeah, I thought he was making a distinction between practitioners and Christians in name only, but it reads like believers (i.e. practitioners) get divorced more. I'm used to the usual blind faith cures all argument, but what he's actually saying makes no sense at all.

[Craig A Olson]

03:29 AM on 08/26/2011

This article didn't discuss divorce rates at all. Somebody at Puff better learn second grade math. It discusses divorces per capita. Divorce rates are the percentage of divorces to marriages.

[Deli]

03:09 AM on 08/26/2011

It could be very possible religion only appears to be related, when in fact it is not. But it does bring to mind that perhaps these same areas, that seem so against gay marriage, are not in fact against the homosexual aspect but are just saying, "Don't do it!" "Save yourselves!" "In the name of God, please, avoid it at all costs!"

[Melissa Ausua]

02:25 AM on 08/26/2011

sadly, there isn't much significance behind the term "Bible Belt" anymore.

[Craig A Olson]

03:30 AM on 08/26/2011

You've been duped by bad reporting and bad conception.

[Blaine Knapp]

03:44 AM on 08/26/2011

I'm a Christian and I agree. How can Christians justify their support of a belligerent foreign policy we've employed for the past 100 years?

[CPAwADD]

02:05 PM on 08/26/2011

The bible belt doesn't keep people's pants up!