A divorce is the legal means of ending a marriage, after which both spouses are able to live separate lives. It includes addressing issues related to marital property division, the custody of children, and child/spouse support.
Many people want to know what is the divorce rate in the United States, and the answer shifts over time. Social factors, marriage trends, divorce laws, age, economic trends, financial factors, and others also affect when divorce begins. This changes across states as divorce laws shift.
According to an analysis by Bowling Green State University’s National Center for Family and Marriage Research (NCFMR), the United States’ divorce rate in 2024 dropped to 13.3 divorces per 1,000 married adults, a decrease from the 2023 divorce rate of 13.4.
The CDC’s data showed that in 2024, there were 662,950 divorces and annulments recorded across the reporting states. In 2023, there were 672,502 divorces and annulments recorded across the same areas.
This drop was not equal for every group and every state, but the overall numbers did decrease. Here’s a closer look at why divorce rates change in 2026.
Different Ways to Measure
The CDC “crude rate” takes the divorce count and divides it by the total population of the reporting states. That total includes kids and also people who never married. When fewer people marry, that crude rate can fall even if married couples split at the same pace.
But keep in mind that the CDC figures are also incomplete. In 2023, only 45 states and the District of Columbia reported divorce figures. This statistic does not include California, Hawaii, Indiana, Minnesota, and New Mexico. Given that California makes up a large part of the population, many figures are missing.
Researchers who want a clearer picture use a refined rate. This measure counts divorces only for people who are married. The National Center for Family and Marriage Research at Bowling Green State University follows this using Census survey data. It reported 14.2 divorces per 1,000 married women in 2024, and that is a bit lower than 14.4 in 2023. In 2024, nearly 1 million women divorced, according to Census survey data.
Information at the state level gives an even better view of divorce trends. For example, information on divorce trends at the local level within California can be compared to national data to better understand the differences in marital trends between various areas.
That matters most for California, which does not report divorce counts to the CDC’s national system.
Who Marries, and When
According to the Census Bureau, the median age at first marriage was 30.8 for males and 28.4 for females in 2025. In 1975, these ages were lower, i.e., 23.5 years for males and 21.1 years for females. At the same time, the percentage of households made up of married couples fell from 66% to 47%.
These figures point to a different set of marriages than the one seen decades ago. Scientists look into these trends and see if people marrying later in life divorce at a different rate than people who marry young.
National statistics look very different from the kitchen table, where a single family decides to split.
Short-Term Swings
Divorce rates can change even when a couple’s feelings stay the same. CDC data shows the crude rate fell from 2.7 in 2019 to 2.3 in 2020, when schedules at home and court calendars both slowed down, then rose to 2.5 in 2021.
Timing is also shaped by money. Ending a marriage costs more than people expect. It also splits one household into two. Often, it means selling a home. So some partners may delay a divorce until they can manage the cost.
Regional Differences
Divorce numbers differ a lot by location. Researchers based in Bowling Green reported the top refined rate in Oklahoma, 20.7 divorces per 1,000 married women in 2024. Maine had the smallest figure, 10.0 per 1,000.
In the rankings, Southern states mostly sat near the top. Midwestern and Northeastern states were more often lower. The western states most often fell in between.
This set of figures points to where divorce is more common, not the reason it happens. People often discuss multiple links, such as how old a person is at marriage, the local economic situation, and what culture expects. Texas offers another view from the South, where couples who married later may bring longer careers and more property to a Round Rock family lawyer when a marriage ends. Still, no single explanation applies to all cases.
Divorce levels vary depending on who marries, the couples’ ages, when the marriage occurs, and how divorce is measured and counted by researchers. Other changes in the economy and in the court system can also matter. Reading one prominent statistic in isolation can show more about the method of measurement than it does about marriage.
