October 07, 2003

The "Half of All Marriages End in Divorce" Myth

Blog of the Moderate Left continues the myth that 50% of all marriages end in divorce. This claim comes from a superficial glance at some data. According to the National Center for Health Statistics via The World Almanac in 2001, there were 8.4 marriages per 1000 population. There were 4.0 divorces per 1000 population. All that tells us is that in sheer numbers there were about twice as many marriages in 2001 than divorces. That doesn't tell us that half of all marriages formed in 2001 will end in divorce. Simple data like this doesn't allow us to make a conclusion either way. To do that we'd need to track a large sample of marriages.

"Jesse Layeth the Smack Down"