Editorial: Are fewer divorces good news?
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For decades, we have heard the troubling statistic about American families. Half of marriages end in divorce.
Well, the odds are improving. Especially in Pennsylvania.
A 2017 Psychology Today study reviewed those numbers and found a new bride and groom had a 75% chance of staying together. Aw. We knew those two crazy kids were going to make it.
Now new numbers from the U.S. Census Bureau say it’s even better than that. Eight women out of every 1,000 in Pennsylvania in 2008 got a divorce. In 2018, that stat fell to 6.5 divorces per 1,000.
So does that mean people are just more committed today? That they’re taking their vows more seriously? That what the world needs now is love, sweet love?
That would be nice, but it’s not exactly the truth. For one thing, we may be seeing fewer divorces for the simple reason that we have fewer marriages. The number of couples tying the knot in Pennsylvania in 2018 was 14.7 per 1,000, compared to 16.6 nationwide.
Maybe it’s money. Legal help website Lawyers.com estimates a divorce in the Keystone State costs an average of $14,300. And that’s just a straightforward one. Custody issues can push that number to $21,500.
Maybe it’s that people are walking away from bad relationships before they get to the altar. In Pennsylvania, 1 in 4 women and 1 in 7 men have been the victims of “severe physical violence” by a partner. There were 123 domestic violence deaths in 2018, and a woman is in the most danger when she says she is leaving, according to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence.
Maybe it has something to do with all that brain drain that educators and politicians talk about, as our college-educated young adults — the ones often falling in love and shopping for rings — are moving out of state. That’s very possible because birth rates are down 9% over the same 10-year period, according to state statistics.
This might seem like a kind of quirky “what’s happening in your state” story, like which state has the most hockey fans or where are you going to retire in style. There could be more to it, though.
Families are the core building block of our communities and, in turn, our economy. Fewer divorces is good news, but only if it means more stable families that help Pennsylvania’s gears keep turning.
If they just point to couples marrying elsewhere or sad breakups before a lawyer gets involved, we’re still left with an aging, shrinking population. And that’s a problem that could use a few good proposals.