Intriguing facts about divorce in America

To understand divorce in the United States, it’s important to take a look at some of the more interesting facts and statistics that have been compiled over the years. These can help you see why divorce tends to happen, what the odds are that it will happen to you and more. This understanding can then help you plan for your divorce and how to move forward with your life.

With that in mind, here are a few interesting facts to start with:

• The highest that the divorce rate ever got, officially, is right around 50 percent. That happened back in the 1980s.
• Since the 1980s, the divorce rate has actually fallen, though it is still thought that someone’s first marriage has roughly a 40 percent to 50 percent chance of ending in this manner.
• To know what your odds of divorce are, start by looking at the way your state votes. Reports claim that couples in states that vote Republican are roughly 27 percent more likely end their marriages with a divorce.
• Another thing to consider is whether one person smokes and the other does not. If so, it’s 75 percent more likely that you and your spouse will split up.
• When families have no sons and only daughters, oddly enough, statistics show that divorce is about 5 percent more likely.
• Overall, though, having children at all does make a couple a bit less likely to divorce than those who have no children together.

No matter how or why your marriage ends in divorce, you absolutely need to know all the legal steps you should take concerning property division, child custody and other important issues.