Amid Downturn, Divorce and Infidelity Decrease

Sure, divorcing in tough economic times might involve the use of a Taser, but according to fresh data released on Friday from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the divorce rate is at its lowest point since the early 1970s. And infidelity has continued to decline.

The divorce rate per 1,000 married women sank to 16.4 in 2009 from 16.9 the year before and a far cry from 22.6 in 1980, according to an analysis of the data from the National Marriage Project at the University of Virginia.

“It runs counter to this image people have of Tiger Woods and divorce,” Prof. Bradford Wilcox, director of the National Marriage Project, says. “They get a sense from the media that divorce is prevalent but the reality is we’re not experiencing divorce that way.”

The divorce rate has long been a sticky statistic, with some figures functioning as projections, or using experiences from one generation to draw conclusions about the unions of others. Most statisticians agree that overall divorce rate has been on the decline since the so-called “divorce revolution” of the 1970s.

The CDC data more closely points to what actually happened with marriages, Prof. Wilcox says. As the downturn wears on, the divorce rate decreased more from 2008 to 2009 than from 2007 to 2008.

The downward trend in the divorce rate from 17.3 in 2005 to last year’s 16.4 speaks to the historical trend of the number of divorces in a downturn decreasing, even in an era when many couples waiting longer to get married and have kids. Legal fees, a dreary real-estate market and other economic malaise might be causing some couples to hold off from divorcing. Others may be banding together in tough times.

Further, infidelity has fallen modestly, especially among married men, Prof. Wilcox says. Infidelity overall hasn’t increased over the last 20 years, according to his research.

Among adults who were ever married in the 2000s, 21% of men and 14% of women reported that they had ever had sex with someone other than their spouse while they were married, according to the Project’s analysis of General Social Survey data. In the 1990s, 22% of ever-married men and 14% of ever-married women said they’d had an affair.


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US Study Shows Increase in Number of Women Cheating

Mention the word 'adultery' and chances are, the men always come to mind.

But no more.

It seems that more women are cheating on their spouses - nearly as many as men, reported the International Herald Tribune.

Researchers from the University of Washington found that infidelity is on the rise, and notably, women are closing the adultery gap.

Younger women are also cheating on their spouses nearly as often as men.

The research showed that the lifetime rate of infidelity for men over 60 increased from 20 per cent in 1991 to 28 per cent in 2006. But for women over 60, the increase is even more striking - up from 5 per cent to 15 per cent in that same period.

Mr David Atkins, research associate professor at the University of Washington Centre said: 'If you just ask whether infidelity is going up, you don't see really impressive changes.

'But if you magnify the picture and you start looking at specific gender and age cohorts, we do start to see some pretty significant changes.'

The researchers also said they saw big changes in relatively new marriages.

About 20 per cent of men and 15 per cent of women under 35 say they have been unfaithful, up from about 15 per cent and 12 per cent respectively, according to that report.