U.S. Census data show that the West and South are leaders in the United States in marriage and divorce. North Eastern states have the lowest marriage and divorce rates.
USA Today reports one reason for the difference:
“This does not mean you should move to the Northeast if you want your marriage to last,” says sociologist Andrew Cherlin of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, who has reviewed the data.
In the South, people tend to marry earlier and often have less education, both of which increase divorce risk, he says. Those in the Northeast tend to have more education and marry later. “The lesson here is that a higher level of education leads to more stable families. Sometimes the data surprises people because regions we think of as socially conservative have higher rates of divorce, but that’s largely because people have less education and marry younger.”
