If you listen to the news, you have heard about divorce statistics.
They are constantly in the news and people regularly decry them as appalling.
Current statistics suggest that half of all new marriages will end in divorce,
and many people suggest that these divorce statistics suggest some type of crisis
in family life. Divorce statistics suggest that there were 957,200 divorces
in this country in 2000, 944,317 in 1999, and 947,384 in 1998. Yet, divorce
statistics are not the complete picture, as people are still getting married.
The total number of marriages in the nation was 2,355,005 in 2000, 2,366,623
in 1999, and 2,267,854 in 1998. Therefore, there are still many people willing
to make a lifelong commitment to each other. Divorce statistics at best tell
only a partial story. They may affect you in the sense that you are more likely
to see couples around you going through divorces, but they do not necessarily
mean that you are more likely to go through a divorce. Despite the statistics,
many marriages formed today will in fact last a lifetime.
How much should you worry about divorce statistics? If you get married today,
do divorce statistics mean that your chances of having the marriage last are
only one in two? What is the real value of divorce statistics? If you have ever
considered marriage, these questions - or others like them - may have occurred
to you. The truth is, while divorce statistics are interesting and make interesting
copy, they should not affect your decision to get married. Most experts on marriage
agree that divorce statistics are misleading because they give many people the
false impression that there is some basic reason why more people get divorced.
The truth is, divorce statistics will not necessarily affect you.
Experts agree that it is not divorce statistics but rather individual factors
that determine whether a marriage succeeds or fails. If your marriage falls
apart it is individual problems and not national divorce statistics that make
it so. Similarly, no matter how abysmal the current divorce statistics, your
marriage still has a very high rate of success if both of you are truly committed,
compatible and willing to work on staying together. Experts agree that individual
factors - such as level of commitment, willingness to work on a marriage, background,
and attitudes about relationships and divorce are better predictors of marriage
success than divorce statistics.
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