Local 2017 Stats: One Divorce Per 2.3 Marriages

This just in, the latest data on local marriages and divorces.

As you can see below, both marriage and divorce numbers have remained relatively flat in our community over the past two decades, in spite of a 25% local population rise during that time. 

This doesn't mean there are fewer people in intimate and exclusive relationships, only that more of them are failing to document their relationship. And when these unregistered couples break up, they experience the same distresses divorced partners do, but their breakups are of course not included in the numbers below:

Year           Marriages     Divorces

1996           873                 387

1997           950                 405

1998           964                 396

1999           932                 405

2000           947                 365

2001          1003                438     (most annual marriages)

2002           976                 421

2003           961                 399

2004           959                 437

2005           889                 381

2006           929                 389

2007           925                 434

2008           950                 405

2009           903                 347     (fewest annual divorces)

2010           879                 358     (fewest annual marriages since 1996)

2011           933                 433

2012           995                 445

2013           924                 484     

2014           972                 427

2015           955                 474

2016           985                 612     (most annual divorces)
2017           983                 426

Clarification 1: Marriage numbers include those who come here from other locations to marry, whereas divorce numbers include only the breakups of people who live in the City or County. However, it seems logical to assume that a roughly equal number of residents marry in other jurisdictions as marry here from other communities, so the numbers above should be reasonably valid for comparison purposes.

Clarification 2: One cannot assume a rate of divorce based on any one year's numbers, as in "45% of first time marriages in our community will end in divorce" (Many of the above couples are marrying or divorcing for a second, third or fourth time). But with numbers of over a period of this many years, one might safely conclude that the odds of a given marriage surviving are not nearly as good as we would like.