Stunning Statistics
America leads the world in divorce. Current figures show that 41-50 percent of first marriages fail. Second-marriage failure rates stand at 60-67 percent. Even more staggering is that third marriages face a 73 to 74 percent failure rate!
While divorce rates are not yet as high in other countries, the number of broken homes is increasing, with Russia and eastern European countries presently showing the highest spikes in divorce. In Canada, 37.7 percent of all marriages are expected to end before a couple’s 30th anniversary.
Divorce rates are also climbing in India. BBC News reported that “the chances of this year’s newly-weds staying together for the rest of their lives are slimmer than ever.
“‘There has been a huge change, a drastic change and divorce rates are increasing,’ Dr Geetanjali Sharma, a marriage counsellor working in Gurgaon, a wealthy Delhi satellite city, told the BBC.
“‘There’s been a 100% increase in divorce rates in the past five years alone.’”
With such bleak statistics, many are now seeking “alternatives” that seem more attractive than traditional vows. After all, many say, Who needs a piece of paper stating they are legally married?
As a result, cohabitation, once illegal and frowned upon as “living in sin,” has now become socially acceptable.
But does living together produce positive effects? Studies indicate that cohabitation produces even worse results than troubled marriages.
“The CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics...found that the probability of a first marriage ending in separation or divorce within five years is 20 percent, compared with the 49 percent probability of a pre-marital cohabitation breaking up within the same time period,” CNN reported. “After 10 years, the study found, a first marriage has a 33 percent chance of ending compared with a 62 percent chance for cohabitations.”
A few model marriages do still exist, but it is becoming increasingly rare to find couples who have been happily married for several decades.
The growing marriage-failure rate around the world has led people to believe that marriage is simply becoming outdated. A closer look reveals why such a change is occurring.