There are so many inconsistent numbers on the US divorce rate that it’s difficult to get your hands on good numbers. Most often you hear 50%, but that’s an over-simplistic estimate that seems to have little basis in hard numbers.
That makes a 2009 study from the U.S. Census Bureau all the more significant. The study was on 2009 America’s Families and Living Arrangements.
Here are a couple of summary charts we put together:
Using the same source, the PAIRS Foundation has done a deeper look at divorce rates at different income levels:
The 2009 America’s Families and Living Arrangements study reveals the percentage of women earning over $100k who are divorced climbs from 11.85% between 45-49 to 22.45% from 50-54. For men in the same income category, the percentage who are divorced drops from 8.4% between the ages of 45-49 to 6.61% for those who are 50-54.
For men between 45-54, as income increases, the percentage who are divorced declines. For high-earning women between 50-54, the percentage that are divorced grows as paychecks increase.
We’ll look at this further in future posts.
