# Half of all marriages end in divorce? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [May 18, 2011, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-of-all-marriages-end-in-divorce/582355 "2011-05-18T18:20:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2011, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-of-all-marriages-end-in-divorce/582355/1 "2011-05-18T18:20:09Z")
I just wanted to say that the closing line in this [column](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2435/is-it-true-half-of-all-marriages-end-in-divorce) was a very good way of putting a view I hold dearly: > [@Cecil](#): > > Better we should quit whining about the decline of traditional values and deal with the world as it is. Those who pine for traditional values and old ways are not helping us move forwards. Longing for yesteryear is great but nostalgia gets us nowhere. Great column and great comment, Cecil. ---
**Author:** ![Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de053/32.png) [@Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackknifed_Juggernaut)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2011, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-of-all-marriages-end-in-divorce/582355/2 "2011-05-18T18:25:26Z")
Completely agree, especially when you consider how the world _really_ was in decades past. ---
**Author:** ![Blakeyrat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ecd19e/32.png) [@Blakeyrat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blakeyrat)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2011, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-of-all-marriages-end-in-divorce/582355/3 "2011-05-18T20:26:13Z")
> [@Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](#): > > Completely agree, especially when you consider how the world _really_ was in decades past. Cecil doesn’t discuss it, but his 1940 numbers-- are those so low because people lied on the census? There was a lot more social stigma to teen pregnancy in 1940. Are we sure those rates are accurate? ---
**Author:** ![user\_hostile](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/user_hostile/32/474_2.png) [@user\_hostile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/user_hostile)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2011, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-of-all-marriages-end-in-divorce/582355/4 "2011-05-18T21:04:19Z")
> [@Blakeyrat](#): > > Cecil doesn’t discuss it, but his 1940 numbers-- are those so low because people lied on the census? There was a lot more social stigma to teen pregnancy in 1940. Are we sure those rates are accurate? Yeah, that surprised me too. I thought the peak year for teen pregnancies was in 1957. But I cannot recall the cite (I think from this book:[The Way We Never Were](http://www.amazon.com/Way-We-Never-Were-Nostalgia/dp/0465090974) and serves as an interesting argument as to why nostalgia can be a dangerous thing). The prevalence of shot-gun marriages would also have lowered that statistic significantly. I’m reminded of two cases of incest I heard about in the mid-70’s. A check of library books said that this happened about to about one-in-a-million persons (again, I don’t have a cite, but I remember thinking that it was like winning the lottery twice–what are the odds of that?) Suffice to say, we all know today that the statistics were horribly flawed. And I would say the same applies to “teen pregnancy” being deliberately underreported in the 40’s. ---
**Author:** ![Elf\_Owl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7bcc69/32.png) [@Elf\_Owl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elf_Owl)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2011, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-of-all-marriages-end-in-divorce/582355/5 "2011-05-18T21:29:17Z")
> [@](#): > > in 1999 the proportion of black children born to single moms was 69 percent. Lest you think high rates of unwed motherhood are confined to persons of color, in 1998 the proportion of births to unmarried women in Iceland was 64 percent. I was surprised that this was put in the column like this. It’s a bit apples and oranges to me. A single mom is a woman without partner at the birth of her child, an unwed mother can also be someone who hasn’t officially registered her marital status. A single mom may be married (and in the process of getting a divorce) an unwed mother may have a longterm relation (quite common in Iceland) ---
**Author:** ![Thomas\_E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8c91f0/32.png) [@Thomas\_E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thomas_E)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2011, 8:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-of-all-marriages-end-in-divorce/582355/6 "2011-05-24T08:00:02Z")
According to this [http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/63/5/41919559.pdf](http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/63/5/41919559.pdf) OECD report 70 % of 11, 13 or 15 year olds lives with both their parents in Iceland, 12 % live with a step father/mother while 15 % live with a single parent. The percentages for the US are 57/14/24.