Economic Downturn Results in Decreased Divorce/Infidelity Rates
- A recent Wall Street Journal article reports that the Center for Disease Control and Prevention released new data indicating the national divorce rate is at its lowest point since the 1970s. According to a University of Virginia project analyzing the CDC data, the divorce rate per 1,000 married women dropped from 16.9 in 2008 to 16.4 in 2009. The last two years’ figures pale in comparison to the rate in 1980, which was 22.6 divorces per 1,000 married women.
- The data also reflects that infidelity rates have decreased over the past several years. Specifically, the Wall Street Journal reports, “For those who are married currently in the 2000s, 16% of men and 10% of women said they had an affair while married. In the previous decade, 16% of men and 11% of women said they’d cheated. The number of women who said that infidelity was “always wrong” increased to 84% in the 2000s, up from 73% in the 1970s. Some 78% of men in the 2000s said infidelity was wrong, compared with 63% in the 1970s.”
- Read the full article here or read the CDC statistics for yourself here.