Divorce

The divorce rate in the US started rising in 1970 and peaked in 1980 and has be on the decline since but the data is not the whole picture. Over the past 40 years the number of non-married people living together has increased and when they break up that is not counted in the divorce stats. 41% of marriages end in divorce but that does not include break up of those just living together and experts feel that would raise the rate to half. Cohabitation has increased by nearly 900 percent over the last 50 years. More and more, couples are testing the waters before diving into marriage. Census data from 2012 shows that 7.8 million couples are living together without walking down the aisle, compared to 2.9 million in 1996.Mar 20, 2014 Cohabiting couples had a separation rate five times that of married couples and a reconciliation rate that was one-third that of married couples.