The State With The Highest Divorce Rate

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By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Published
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The State With The Highest Divorce Rate

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Almost 700,000 people get divorced each year, causing havoc with family finances and crippling children emotionally and financially. Over a longer measurement period, almost four in ten marriages end in divorce. The rate varies wildly by state and there are some clear reasons why.

Formrush looked at CDC and Statista data to determine divorce rates across 45 states. It then looked at the figures on a per 1,000 basis. There was no detectable pattern. The analysis threw in cost of living, education, and age. However, none of these was valuable in the outcome, in so far as the study showed.

Nevada topped the list at 4.2 per 1,000. At one time, Reno was the divorce capital of America. People could go there and, after a six-week residence, could dissolve their marriages. In 1940, nearly 40% of divorces in America were filed in Nevada. These favorable laws became less favorable over the intervening years.

The list of states with the lowest divorce rates is odd as well. Massachusetts tops it at one per 1,000, followed by Illinois at 1.3. Utah is not on the top 10 list, even though divorce among Mormons is among America’s lowest religions

These are the ten states with the highest divorce rates.

Courtesy of Formrush

credit: formrush

Courtesy of Formrush

credit: formrush

Also read: 17 really weird divorce settlements

Photo of Douglas A. McIntyre
About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.

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