Wednesday, October 03, 2007

Marriage in America

Hmm. I have to admit that I'm taken aback by the figures in this op-ed piece from Saturday's NY Times.
The story of ever-increasing divorce is a powerful narrative. It is also wrong. In fact, the divorce rate has been falling continuously over the past quarter-century, and is now at its lowest level since 1970. While marriage rates are also declining, those marriages that do occur are increasingly more stable. For instance, marriages that began in the 1990s were more likely to celebrate a 10th anniversary than those that started in the 1980s, which, in turn, were also more likely to last than marriages that began back in the 1970s.
I guess I just assumed that divorce rates were only ever going to head one direction and that's Up. Seems that's not so.

That little caveat about declining marriage rates deserves more investigation, but I think this is good news.