How To Beat The Stats

The statistics are dismal. And depressing.

• In Canada, the total divorce rate peaked at 362 divorces per 100,000 inhabitants in 1987.
• In 2000, the divorce rate was 231 per 100,000 inhabitants.
• After three years of marriage, the divorce rate was at its highest, at 26.2 per 1,000 couples. The risk of divorce declined slightly with each passing year after that.

And Statistics Canada figures from 2003 show the number of Canadians getting divorced more than once is on the rise.

• The number of marriage breakups involving husbands who have been divorced at least once tripled in three decades.
• In 2003, 16.2 per cent of husbands getting divorced had at least one previous divorce, while in 1973, the rate was 5.2 per cent.
• Similarly, divorces involving wives who had previously been divorced rose from 5.4 per cent in 1973 to 15.7 per cent in 2003.

Do you think things are much better south of the border?

• The last-reported U.S. divorce rate for a calendar year, available as of May, 2005, is 0.38% divorces per capita per year, the provisional estimate for the year 2005 from the National Center for Health Statistics.
• The Census Bureau's often-cited "50%" rate, the proportion of marriages taking place right now that will eventually divorce, which has since been revised downward to roughly 43% by the National Center for Health Statistics but was moved back up to around 50% by the Census Bureau in 2002, with even more ifs ands and buts than usual. Most recently, according to the New York Times, it has been revised downward to just over 40%.

With numbers like that, just how does a couple just starting out beat the odds, you ask?

By having a little fun, of course!

H/T to Dar