A statistician named Nathan Yau was curious about whether or not occupation could be used as a predictor of divorce, so he decided to look at the U.S. Census data from 2015 to see what he could determine.
What were the results? Well, if you’re married to a casino manager, your odds of divorce are higher than anybody else’s at 52.9%. Bartenders and their spouses don’t fare much better — nor did gaming service workers and flight attendants.
If you’re looking for true “marriage material,” you’re better off with an actuary. Their divorce rates hover right around 17%. Physical scientists and medical scientists also tend to have exceptionally low divorce rates — lower even than members of the clergy.
Why do some careers have a bigger impact on marital stability than others?
There are probably a lot of nuances to each career that ultimately make them rough on marital stability, but there are several basic factors that tend to be most important:
- Workplace atmosphere: If someone’s job environment tends to reward risk-taking or leans toward the hedonistic side of life, that may encourage similar behaviors in their private life. (It’s probably no coincidence that gaming and casino managers have high divorce rates.)
- Financial stability: Money troubles are often at the heart of major marital problems, so a career that provides strong financial stability may also lend strength to a marriage. At the very minimum, employment stability certainly won’t hurt the relationship.
- Overall job satisfaction: People spend a lot of time at their jobs. If they aren’t happy there, they may carry that negativity home with them — and that can be a destructive force on their marriages.
It’s also important to remember that some careers tend to attract people who may simply be more prone to stability and likely to enjoy married life — while others attract people who like change. The staid routine of an actuary’s life, for example, probably wouldn’t appeal to a social bartender who likes the changes from night to night at their job. Those personality differences can also have consequences for a marriage.
Sometimes, it’s hard to tell that marriage isn’t right for you until you’ve been in one. If you’re now thinking about divorce, it may be time to learn more about the process.