Your divorce odds are falling if you are an average American. For numerous reasons, the average divorce rate is dropping for most age groups, and it has been doing so for years. One reason is cohabitation, for instance, which is more popular now and means that a lot of younger couples don’t need to get divorced when they break up.
However, if you’re 50 years of age or older, then you’re in the only demographic where the divorce rate is going up. This has been happening since the 1990s. The rate has actually tripled since then, so you can see that it’s vastly more common for individuals in this group to split up.
What are some reasons for the rise?
There are a lot of reasons for this change, one being that the individuals in this age group are simply a different group of people than those who have gone before them. A 50-year-old right now was only 19 in 1990. This means that these individuals have grown up with the ease of no-fault divorce laws, and they may view divorce far differently than someone who was 50 years old back in 1990 when divorce was often a very convoluted and hard-fought process.
Another reason could be life expectancy itself. Though it has fallen in recent years in the United States, the general trend is that people keep living longer. It stands to reason that some couples get divorced simply because they have longer to live their lives and they decide that they want to spend these years in a different way than their spouse. Many divorces happen when people simply drift apart, and a higher life expectancy means more time for that to happen.
If you and your spouse decide to split up, regardless of your age, be sure you know what legal steps to take to protect your future and your interests.