Relationship & Love Tips™ Research

U.S. Relationship, Marriage & Divorce Statistics

A research-based look at how Americans partner, marry, cohabit and divorce—plus the age, demographic, geographic and long-term patterns that help explain how relationship life is changing.

United States CDC • U.S. Census • Pew • NCFMR Latest source years: 2023–2026 Research overview
EXPLORE THE DATA → WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR REAL PEOPLE?
51% of U.S. adults were married in the 2023 estimate.
42% were not living with a spouse or romantic partner.
20.3M adults were cohabiting in the 2024 estimate.
13 yrs median duration of first marriages ending in first divorce in 2023.

Statistics describe populations, not the future of one individual relationship. Annual marriage and divorce counts should not be interpreted as the percentage of marriages that eventually divorce. Cohort studies, longitudinal research, and annual rates answer different questions.

A national snapshot

How Americans are partnering now

No single statistic describes every relationship. These measures distinguish marriage, cohabitation, legal divorce and people who are not living with a romantic partner.

51%
of adults were married
2023 estimate. [3]
7%
were cohabiting
Living with an unmarried partner in 2023. [3]
42%
were unpartnered
Not married and not living with a partner in 2023. [3]
20.3M
adults were cohabiting
Current Population Survey estimate for 2024. [4]
2.04M
marriages were registered
2023; 6.1 marriages per 1,000 residents. [1]
672,502
divorces and annulments reported
2023; 45 reporting states and D.C. [1]
30.8 / 28.4
median age at first marriage
Men / women, 2025 estimate. [2]
13 years
median duration before first divorce
Among people experiencing a first divorce in 2023. [6]

How U.S. adults were partnered in 2023

Married 51%
Cohabiting with an unmarried partner 7%
Not living with a spouse or partner 42%

This residential measure does not capture every committed dating, long-distance or living-apart relationship. [3]

What population statistics cannot tell you

Data can describe relationships. It cannot tell you what will happen to yours.

National statistics help us understand how relationship life is changing across millions of people. They cannot diagnose an individual relationship, predict whether a couple will stay together, or prove why one relationship succeeds and another struggles.

What the research does show

Americans now form relationships across a wider range of life stages, household structures and marital statuses. Marriage is occurring later, cohabitation is more common, and relationship experiences differ substantially by age, geography and social context.

  • There is no single relationship statistic that describes every couple.
  • Marriage and divorce rates describe populations—not the future of one relationship.
  • Many dating and nonmarital breakups are not captured in national government records.
  • Relationship outcomes are shaped by multiple interpersonal, developmental, economic and contextual influences.

What you can do with that information

Population data cannot repair a difficult conversation. Relationship education becomes useful when it helps people recognize what happens inside the interaction itself.

  • Notice escalation earlier.
  • Understand your own responses during conflict.
  • Build greater awareness of how the interaction changes under pressure.
  • Practice more useful responses before familiar conflict takes over.
The statistics describe the landscape. The work begins with what happens between two people.
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Research context: Marriage, divorce, cohabitation and partnership statistics summarize populations. They should not be interpreted as proof that conflict causes every breakup or as a prediction of what will happen in a particular relationship.
Relationship patterns across adulthood

Relationship status by age

Partnership is least common in early adulthood, rises sharply through the 30s and 40s, and then changes again as divorce, separation and widowhood become more common.

Share of adults who were unpartnered in 2023

Ages 18–24
86%
Ages 25–39
42%
Ages 40–54
29%
Ages 55–64
32%
Ages 65+
41%

Among adults age 65 and older, 51% of women and 29% of men were unpartnered. Widowhood and women's longer average life expectancy contribute to this difference. [3]

Age group Unpartnered Married or cohabiting Interpretation
18–24 86% 14% Most have not yet formed a co-residential partnership.
25–39 42% 58% Partnership formation accelerates, but a large minority remains unpartnered.
40–54 29% 71% The most heavily partnered age group in this analysis.
55–64 32% 68% Partnership remains common while divorce and separation affect a larger share.
65+ 41% 59% Widowhood and gender differences become increasingly important.

First divorce is most frequent among younger married adults

In 2023, the first-divorce rate was highest among ages 18–29: 17.6 per 1,000 men in first marriages and 19.3 per 1,000 women. At age 75+, the corresponding rates were 2.8 and 5.1. [5]

First divorce occurs later than it once did

The median age at first divorce reached 43.3 for men and 41.9 for women in 2023, up from 30.5 and 27.7 in 1970. [7]

Understanding the measures

Marriage and divorce measures

Marriage and divorce statistics answer different questions depending on the denominator used. These measures describe events in populations; they are not individual relationship predictions.

Crude marriage rate
6.1

Marriages per 1,000 total residents in 2023. [1]

Crude divorce rate
2.4

Reported divorces and annulments per 1,000 residents in 2023; five states were excluded. [1]

Marriage-to-divorce event ratio
2.42

Women's marriages per divorce during 2024, based on ACS reports of events in the prior year. [10]

Do not read 2.42 as a survival probability. Marriages and divorces occurring in one calendar period involve different couples and different marriage cohorts.

How long first marriages lasted before divorce

The median was 13 years for both men and women in 2023. The middle 50% ranged from 7–24 years for women and 6–23 years for men. [6]

First-divorce rates have declined

From 2008 to 2023, the rate fell from 16.9 to 11.5 per 1,000 for men and from 18.7 to 13.4 for women. [5]

American relationships are not one-size-fits-all

Relationship diversity

National averages are useful, but the relationships represented inside those averages are increasingly diverse in structure, identity, background and life stage.

1.4M
same-sex couple households
Approximately 836,000 married and 551,000 unmarried in 2024. [11]
31.3%
of married same-sex couples were interracial
Compared with 19.5% of married opposite-sex couples in 2024. [11]
34%
of unmarried same-sex couples were interracial
Compared with 29% of unmarried opposite-sex couples in 2022. [12]
∞

A broad map—not a description of every couple

American couples increasingly include interracial, interethnic, same-sex, mixed-nativity, remarried, blended-family, later-life and living-apart-together relationships. Aggregate statistics should therefore be interpreted as a broad map, not as a description of every couple.

Where people live matters to the numbers

Geographic differences

For state comparisons, refined rates are more informative than crude rates because the denominator is the population actually eligible to experience the event. The marriage rate below is per 1,000 unmarried women age 15+; the divorce rate is per 1,000 married women age 15+.

Refined marriage rates, 2024

Highest refined marriage rates
Utah51.7
Idaho44.3
Colorado43.0
Wyoming42.9
South Dakota41.4
Lowest refined marriage rates
Delaware20.1
Louisiana21.2
New Mexico21.6
Connecticut23.8
Rhode Island24.3

U.S. refined marriage rate: 31.2 per 1,000 unmarried women in 2024. Marriage rates were generally higher in parts of the West and Midwest and lower in the Northeast. [8]

Refined divorce rates, 2024

Highest refined divorce rates
Oklahoma20.7
Nevada19.9
Mississippi19.2
Wyoming18.7
Alabama18.0
Lowest refined divorce rates
Maine10.0
Wisconsin10.8
New Jersey11.0
Idaho11.2
Montana / South Carolina11.7

U.S. refined divorce rate: 14.2 per 1,000 married women in 2024. Southern states were disproportionately represented in the higher-rate quartiles. [9]

Read the data accurately

Why the definitions matter

Similar-sounding terms often use different populations and denominators. Understanding the definition prevents a statistic from being interpreted as something it does not actually measure.

Unpartnered

Not married and not living with a romantic partner. A person may still be dating or in a non-cohabiting relationship.

Unmarried

Not currently legally married. This group includes never-married adults, divorced or separated adults, widowed adults and unmarried cohabiters.

Divorce rate

A one-year population rate. It is not the percentage of marriages that will eventually end in divorce.

There is no national breakup registry for dating relationships. Dating and nonmarital breakups usually involve no government filing, so they cannot be counted with the same completeness as marriages and legal divorces.
Scenario, not prediction

Trend-based outlook

The following is a reasoned scenario based on observed demographic patterns. It is not an official government projection and should not be presented as a guaranteed forecast.

What might relationship patterns look like through approximately 2035?
Trend-based outlook: approximately 2026–2035

Marriage will probably remain later

If the long-term movement continues at a slower pace, median first-marriage age may reach roughly 31–32 for men and 29.5–30.5 for women by the mid-2030s.

Cohabitation will probably keep growing

Growth is likely to remain concentrated among ages 25–44, with important percentage growth among adults over 50 and especially later-life partners.

Marriage rates may remain historically low

A reasonable scenario is a crude marriage rate near 5.5–6.5 per 1,000, subject to economic conditions, housing costs, migration and delayed weddings.

Divorce rates may remain low or decline slowly

A plausible scenario is a crude rate near 2.2–2.7 per 1,000, but missing state reports and changing population composition limit precision.

Later-life relationship needs will expand

Population aging will increase the importance of remarriage, companionship, caregiving, blended families, widowhood, financial planning and conflict management after age 50.

Couple diversity will continue increasing

Same-sex, interracial, intercultural, mixed-nativity and nontraditional residential arrangements are likely to represent a growing share of American couple life.

Research integrity matters

How to read these statistics responsibly

A number can look simple while the methodology behind it is not. These distinctions help prevent national statistics from being overinterpreted or applied to individual relationships.

01

Different sources measure different things

CDC vital statistics count registered events. Census surveys estimate population characteristics and events reported by respondents. Pew and the National Center for Family & Marriage Research analyze Census microdata. Results may differ slightly because definitions, samples and denominators differ.

02

Crude and refined rates are not interchangeable

A crude rate uses the total population. A refined marriage rate uses unmarried people who are eligible to marry; a refined divorce rate uses married people who are at risk of divorce.

03

Annual rates are not lifetime odds

A rate of 14 divorces per 1,000 married women in one year does not mean 14% of marriages will end, nor does it estimate the lifetime probability of divorce.

04

Small differences may reflect sampling error

ACS and CPS statistics are survey estimates. State-level findings— especially in states with smaller populations—can have substantial margins of error.

CDC divorce counts are incomplete. The 2023 national table excludes California, Hawaii, Indiana, Minnesota and New Mexico. Comparisons across years should account for changes in reporting coverage. [1]
Primary and analytical sources

References and data sources

This research overview draws primarily from U.S. federal data and demographic analysis from established population and family-research institutions.

  1. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics. “National Marriage and Divorce Rate Trends, 2000–2023” and FastStats: Marriage and Divorce. View CDC marriage and divorce data .
  2. U.S. Census Bureau. Table MS-2, “Estimated Median Age at First Marriage, by Sex: 1890 to Present.” View historical marital-status tables .
  3. Fry, R. (2025), Pew Research Center. “Share of U.S. Adults Living Without a Romantic Partner Has Ticked Down in Recent Years.” Analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data. View the analysis .
  4. Julian, C. A. (2025). “Age Variation in Prevalence of Cohabitation Among Unmarried Men and Women, 2009 & 2024.” National Center for Family & Marriage Research, FP-25-04. View the report .
  5. Bankey, N. (2025). “First Divorce Rate, 2023.” National Center for Family & Marriage Research, FP-25-02. View the report .
  6. Bankey, N. (2025). “Duration of Marriage at First Divorce, 2023.” National Center for Family & Marriage Research, FP-25-22. View the report .
  7. Westrick-Payne, K. K. (2025). “Median Age at First Divorce, 2023.” National Center for Family & Marriage Research, FP-25-23. View the report .
  8. Westrick-Payne, K. K. (2025). “Refined Marriage Rate in the U.S.: Geographic Variation, 2024.” National Center for Family & Marriage Research, FP-25-30. View the report .
  9. Westrick-Payne, K. K. (2025). “Refined Divorce Rate in the U.S.: Geographic Variation, 2024.” National Center for Family & Marriage Research, FP-25-31. View the report .
  10. Westrick-Payne, K. K. (2025). “Marriage-Divorce Ratio in the U.S.: Geographic Variation, 2024.” National Center for Family & Marriage Research, FP-25-32. View the report .
  11. U.S. Census Bureau (2026). “More Female Than Male Same-Sex Couple Households in the United States in 2024.” View the Census analysis .
  12. Hernandez, N., & Hemez, P. (2023), U.S. Census Bureau. “Some Demographic and Economic Characteristics of Male and Female Same-Sex Couples Differed.” View the Census analysis .
  13. Smith, H. N. (2026). “Unmarried Adulthood: More than a Century of Change, 1900–2024.” National Center for Family & Marriage Research, FP-26-08. View the report .
  14. Westrick-Payne, K. K. (2025). “Age Variation in the Refined Divorce Rate, 1990 & 2023.” National Center for Family & Marriage Research, FP-25-24. View the report .
Recommended citation for this webpage: Relationship & Love Tips™. “U.S. Relationship, Marriage and Divorce Statistics: A Research Overview.” Reviewed August 2, 2026. Data drawn from the CDC/NCHS, U.S. Census Bureau, Pew Research Center and the National Center for Family & Marriage Research.
Educational use: This page summarizes population research for general education. It does not provide legal, mental-health or individualized relationship advice. Statistics describe groups and should not be used to predict the outcome of a particular relationship.
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