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Decline in Divorce Rate
Written By Timothy Fish
Published 5/11/2007
The Star-Telegram has reported that the national divorce rate has been going down. In Texas, it has dropped from 5.3 per 1000 people in 1994 to 3.6 per 1000 people in 2004. In Tarrant county, the divorce rate is higher than the statewide average, but it has still dropped from 6.3 to 4.6. The Star-Telegram article cautions that part of the reason for this drop is due to reasons other than people realizing that they are personally responsible for working out the problems in their marriage. It points to the fact that marriages have dropped from 9.9 per 1000 people to 7.9. Which, it suggests, may be due to people living together rather than getting married. Another thought that the writer had was that divorces were down due to people remaining married, but living in separate houses or sleeping in separate bedrooms. Suffice it to say that there needs to be more study done before we can be certain of why we have the numbers that we do, but let’s celebrate good news when we get it.
The fact is that the things the writer suggests may have produced the lower divorce rate have been going on for years. It didn’t suddenly stop in the 1980’s and then start up again. If we look at the number of divorces versus the number of marriages, the number of divorces is still down. In Texas, it was 46% in 2004 versus 54% ten years earlier. In Tarrant county the is higher and the decline is less steady, but it is still declining. It was 58% in 2004 and 66% ten years earlier. The only reason I can think of that we have a higher divorce rate in Tarrant county is that we have a higher percentage of self-serving people than the rest of the state, but at least we are doing better. It also occurs to me that a lot of the things that encourage a higher crime rate in urban areas than there is in rural areas will also encourage a higher divorce rate.
Divorce rates are dropping and that is a good thing. The resources that are being used to help strengthen families seems to be doing their job. So often we look for a glimmer of hope among all of the things we hear in the news and among Christian commentators about how our society is trouble. This is more than a glimmer. This is a 32% reduction in the Texas divorce rate over a ten year period. There is still a lot of room for improvement, especially in Tarrant county, but let’s praise God for the improvement that we have seen so far.
