When you get married, you vow to spend the rest of your life with your partner, for better or for worse. Nearly all couples taking these vows truly believe that they will uphold them and have every intention of remaining together for the rest of their lives. But current divorce statistics say otherwise. You might have heard that half of marriages end in divorce, which is technically true – but does not show the whole picture. A marriage’s likelihood of ending in divorce depends on a few factors, such as the couple’s ages, their education and income levels, whether either has been married before, and their religious beliefs.
Your Income
Generally, couples who earn higher incomes have a lower rate of divorce. This could be due to the fact that with a higher income frequently comes greater financial stability, which means less stress in the household and less fighting between the couple.
But there is more to this statistic. Lower income couples not only divorce more often than higher income couples, but they marry less frequently.
Whether You Have been Married Before
Individuals who have been divorced previously have a higher rate of divorcing from their current spouse than individuals who have not been married previously. The risk of divorce gets higher if one or both of the individuals has children from the previous marriage, because co-parenting with a former spouse and assimilating the child to life with his or her new stepparent can put enormous stress on a marriage.
Your Age
Couples who marry before the age of 25 have a much higher risk of divorcing than couples who wait until their late twenties or later to marry. Why? Because the human brain is not fully developed until about age 25. At 25, the prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain tasked with decision making and impulse control, is fully mature. A mature brain makes better relationship and marriage decisions and can better avoid falling prey to the issues that can destroy a marriage, such as infidelity and financial disputes.
Your Religious Practices
You might think that couples who are religious are more likely to divorce than those who are not. Although this is true in some cases, such as the lower divorce rate among Catholics when compared to other religious groups, how a couple’s religion plays into their likelihood of divorcing is a bit more complicated. What matters more than their religious affiliation is their religious compatibility and each partner’s devotion to the religion. Mixed faith couples and couples where one partner is much more religious than the other tend to fare worse than couples where the partners are similarly devout and are of the same faith.
Work with a Winter Park Divorce Attorney
Keep in mind that having one or more of the characteristics listed above as making your marriage less likely to last does not mean yours will necessarily end in divorce. Individuals and couples are unique and although statistics can show us trends and patterns, they do not determine our fate. Even “perfect” marriages end in divorce. If you are considering filing for divorce, contact experienced Winter Park divorce attorney Aubrey Harry Ducker, Jr. of The Law Offices of Aubrey Harry Ducker, Jr., PLLC today to schedule your initial legal consultation.
