Study: These Are the Top States for Marriages and Divorces

Valentine’s Day is a time dedicated to celebrating romance, but not all love stories have happy endings — especially in certain states. 

QuoteWizard, an insurance rating company, compared marriage and divorce rates from 2011 to 2020 using U.S. Census data, and found that West Virginia, Arkansas and Maine have the highest percentages of people who are divorced, each at 13 percent.  Conversely, Utah, Idaho and Wyoming have the highest percentage of people who are married.

When looking at divorce rates, the number of divorces per 1,000 people, California, Alabama, and Arkansas rank the highest. California sees 3.8 divorces per 1,000 people, Alabama sees 3.7, and Arkansas sees 3.6, according to the study. The states with the highest marriage rates are Montana (10.4), Utah (8.4), and Arkansas (7.4). The study found:

Only six states have seen an increase in their marriage and divorce rates. Divorces have increased in Utah and Iowa by as much as 8 percent. Marriages have increased by as much as 7 percent in Mississippi, Colorado, Utah and Montana. Utah is the only state that has seen an increase in both marriages and divorces.

Overall, QuoteWizard found that both marriage and divorce rates are declining nationwide, “indicating that while fewer people are getting married, those who do so are staying together.”

“Our team of analysts found that the marriage rate has declined by 8 percent since 2011. The divorce rate, meanwhile, has dropped by 17 percent over the same period,” the study found. 

The study also found that 49 percent of people nationwide report being married, 11 percent are divorced, and 33 percent have never married. New York, California, and Massachusetts have the highest percentages of people who have never married.

QuoteWizard did note that “one factor that seems to be fairly consistent is the effect of income on marriage.”

“We found that the more money someone earns, the more likely they are to be married. However, our analysts also found that while women are more likely to be married than men at lower income levels, men are more likely than women to be married at higher income levels,” according to the report. “Overall, men who earn more than $100,000 a year are the most likely to be married. Meanwhile, women who earn between $75,000 and $100,000 a year are the most likely to be divorced.”