TWO STATES LEAD THE COUNTRY IN DIVORCES
Sep 28th, 2009 by Bilal Ali
*Indiana and Florida lead the United States in the number of divorces.
Census statistics released this week show that Monroe County - which includes the cluster of 1,700 islands floating off South Florida - has the second-highest proportion of divorced residents.
A little more than 18 percent of the people living in Monroe County are divorced, second only to Indiana’s Wayne County, which had 19 percent. Nationwide, 10.7 percent of people over 15 are divorced.
Three of the top 10 counties with the most divorced couples are in Florida - rural Putnam County in Northeast Florida and urban Pinellas County on the Gulf Coast are the other two. Indiana had a total of three counties in the top 10 as well. Along with Wayne County, Floyd and Madison counties made the list.
Divorce counselors say the economy could be partly to blame for adding more stress to marriages. Indiana has been hit hard by the collapse of the auto and manufacturing industries. Wayne County had an average annual unemployment rate of 6.8 percent in 2008 - when the census data was collected - a rate above the state average at the time but still below many other areas of the state and country.
Among the other marriage- and divorce-related findings from the census data:
- The number of unmarried people climbed to about one-third of all Americans over 15.
- Oklahoma has the highest rate of people who have been married three times or more.
- Utah and Idaho tied for the youngest median bride age, at 23.5 years old.