15 Interesting Facts About Marriage And Divorce
1. In the past marriage was not always based on love. Marriage was seen as a way to contract bonds with other families, acquire land and wealth and to provide legitimate offspring to strengthen the family unit and continue the line. 1
2. According to research marrying younger than 25 significantly increases divorce risk. 2
3. Age difference between partners is also a risk factor with a higher chance of divorce if the woman is older. 2
4. Education determines the age at which a person marries. The higher an individual’s education, the later in life they are likely to marry. 3
5. Female bread-winner couples have a significantly higher risk of divorce than male-bread-winner couples. 4
6. Your parents affect who you are attracted to as mate preferences are moulded by infant experiences of parental characteristics. 5
7. A person’s happiness level before marriage is the best predictor of happiness after getting married. Getting married does not automatically make a person happier. 6
8. Birth order between partners can affect the success of a marriage. The highest divorce risks are when two firstborns marry or when the husband and wife is both the only child in their families. 7
9. Half of emotional affairs become sexual affairs. 8
10. 85% of happily married couples say their friends and family don’t interfere with their marriage. 8
11. 60% of married couples have had an affair. 8
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12. Married couples accumulate four times more wealth than a single individual. Divorced couples have an average of 77% less wealth than singles. 8
13. Getting married invokes more life satisfaction than money, sex or children. 8
14. According to research, happiness declines significantly four years into a marriage, with another decline at seven to eight years. Almost half of all divorces occur in the first seven years of marriage. 6
15. Research shows certain influences and personalities are linked to infidelity. For example, being raised in a family where affairs are common, having close friends and colleagues who believe its ok to cheat and marrying a partner for cultural and social “stability” but craving excitement and risk.2
Sources and further reading
1 Graff, E.J. 1999. What Is Marriage For: The Strange Social History of Our Most Intimate Institution. Boston, MA: Beacon Press.
2 Neal, Rome. “Signs of Divorce Ahead?: New Study Tries to Predict Which Marriages Will Last.” CBSNEWS.com. August 7, 2002. Accessed: March 6, 2014
3 “Where You Live May Affect When You Get Married.” CNN.com. October 20, 2009. Accessed: March 6, 2014
4 Kraft & Neimann, “Effect of labour Division between Wife and Husband on the Risk of Divorce: Evidence from German Data”, IZA, Discussion Paper No. 4515, October 2009, Accessed: March 6, 2014
5 Perrett, Penton-Voak, Little, Tiddeman, Burt, Schimdt, Oxley, Kinloch, Barrett “Facial attractiveness judgements reflect learning of parental age characteristics.”, US National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health, paper Ref: PMC1690969, May 2007, Accessed: March 6, 2014
6 Gottman, John M. and Julie Schwartz Gottman. 2006. 10 Lessons to Transform Your Marriage. New York, NY: Three Rivers Press.
7 Mannes, George. “Is the Economy Ruining Your Marriage?” CNN.com. August 21, 2009. Accessed: March 6, 2014
8 Harrar, Sari and Rita DeMaria. 2007. The 7 Stages of Marriage: Laughter, Intimacy, and Passion. Pleasantville, NY: Reader’s Digest Books.
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