Many people know that young marriages come with high divorce rates. While you can certainly find examples of couples who married at 18 and are still together 50 years later, statistically speaking, this age group has one of the highest divorce rates.
As people get older, divorce rates tend to decrease. For instance, one study claims that divorce odds drop by roughly 11% per year. This is why waiting to marry, even into your 20s, can increase marital stability and reduce the chances of divorce. But does this trend continue indefinitely?
A reversal in the trend
No, divorce odds do not continue shrinking at the same rate as people get older. This pattern holds until around age 32, an age at which many experts consider couples to have the lowest divorce odds.
However, if individuals continue to delay marriage beyond 32, the odds of divorce start increasing again by about 5% per year. Waiting to marry until age 40, for example, makes divorce significantly more likely than getting married eight years earlier.
Exactly why this happens is not always clear. For one thing, second marriages tend to have higher divorce rates, and many couples in older age brackets may be on their second marriages – and second divorces.
Every marriage is unique
It’s interesting to examine the correlation between age and divorce rates, but every marriage is unique, and divorce can happen for many reasons. If you and your spouse find yourselves moving in this direction, be sure you understand your legal options. It is critical to understand your rights when looking at issues like child custody or property division, especially if you have never been through a divorce before.