The researchers raised several possibilities as to the reasons behind the increase.
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio — Divorce rates among older adults (65 and older) have tripled since 1990, according to a study conducted at Bowling Green State University.
Sociology professor Dr. Susan L. Brown and graduate student Jayden Lu conducted the study on divorce rates among older adults from the university’s National Center for Family and Marriage Research, according to a BGSU press release. The study used data from the U.S. Census Bureau to determine who divorced and at what age.
According to the study, the divorce rate for divorced people aged 65 and older was 15.2% in 2022, compared to 5.2% for the same category in 1990.
What is causing the increase?
Brown said many of these people were divorced as young adults in the 1970s during the divorce revolution and then remarried. Research shows that second marriages tend to end in divorce more often than first marriages, so Brown speculated that this could be one reason for the increase.
However, other factors, such as increasing life expectancy, may also be contributing to this increased rate. In 1990, life expectancy for both men and women was approximately 75 years, according to a February 2020 report from the U.S. Census Bureau. In 2015, that average rose to 78.9 years and is predicted to surpass the 80-year mark in 2020.
Life expectancy in the United States has also increased significantly over the past 60 years. The publication puts the average life expectancy in 1960 at 70.1 years.
However, divorce rates are not increasing for all older age groups. In fact, this study shows that people between the ages of 50 and 64 divorce less often than those over 65. Researchers say this may indicate that baby boomers (those born between 1946 and 1964) are a much more likely generation to divorce than the older generation that followed. He said there is.
The number of older people who have never been married is also increasing. According to this study, 5.2% of older adults in 1990 had never been married. By 2022, that percentage steadily increased to 6.6%.
What is the impact of the increase?
In a press release, Brown said rising divorce rates among older adults could lead to changes in the way cultural and demographic research is conducted on this group, which has traditionally been characterized primarily by its relationship to marriage. He said that there is a sex.
“Traditionally, when studying older adults, we tend to limit our focus to thinking about marriage and bereavement,” Brown said in the release. “These numbers show that we really need to broaden our horizons and think more broadly about the changing composition of older adults, who are increasingly divorced and unmarried.”
