First Divorce Rate by Age and Race/Ethnicity

Family Profile No. 6, 2025
Author: Natalie Bankey

The first divorce rate has declined steadily in the U.S. in recent decades (Loo, 2024). Importantly, the divorce rate declines precipitously by age (Westrick-Payne & Lin, 2023). However, divorce is becoming less age graded, reflecting the disparate patterns over time among younger versus older adults. Specifically, the divorce rate among younger adults has declined, whereas the rate has increased markedly among older adults (Brown & Lin, 2022). In the past few years, the divorce rate among older adults has stagnated (Brown, Lin, & Julian, 2024). In addition to age variation in divorce, there is also variation in divorce rates by race and ethnicity. Black adults tend to have higher divorce rates in comparison to other races or ethnicities, whereas Asian adults experience the lowest divorce rates (Westrick-Payne, 2023). This family profile updates FP-16-23 by examining divorce rates across gender and racial identities by age group using the 5-year 2019[1] American Community Survey (ACS) provided by IMPUS-USA (Ruggles et al., 2024).

[1] To minimize margins of error and account for ACS race question changes in 2020, the 2019 five-year ACS data file was used.

Men’s First Divorce Rate by Age and Race/Ethnicity

• Generally, first divorce rates tend to decline with age. For each racial identity examined, the highest first divorce rate was found among those aged 15 to 24 (among Asians, non-Hispanic Whites, and Other/Multiracial) or 25 to 34 (among Hispanics, non-Hispanic Blacks, and American Indian and Alaska Natives). The lowest first divorce rates for all groups were among those aged 65 and older.
  • Asian men had the lowest first divorce rates, peaking at 21.0 among 15–24-year-olds. From age 25 onward, rates showed little variation, ranging from 8.7 (35–44) to 4.2 (65+)—the lowest among all groups in this range.
  • Overall, Hispanic men also experienced relatively low first divorce rates across age groups. Their highest rate was among 25–34-year-olds (20.1) and their lowest was among those aged 65 and older (7.1).
  • Among non-Hispanic White men, the highest first divorce rate was observed among the youngest age group at 29.4. Each successive age group had lower rates with those aged 65 and older having the lowest at 4.6.
  • For men who identified as Another or Multiracial/ethnic, the highest first divorce rate was experienced by those aged 15-24 at 36.9 divorces per 1,000 married men.
  • American Indian/Alaska Native men had the second-highest first divorce rates. Those aged 25–34 had the highest rate (42.2) for this age group across all groups. They also showed the greatest age variation.
  • Non-Hispanic Black men had the highest first divorce rates but the least age variation. In all but the two youngest groups, they also had the highest rates.

Figure 1. Men’s First Divorce Rate by Age and Detailed Race/Ethnicity

Women’s First Divorce Rate by Age and Race/Ethnicity

• As with men, women’s first divorce rates tended to decline with age. The highest first divorce rate varied across different racial/ethnic identities. Among those aged 15-24, Asians and non-Hispanic Whites experienced their highest divorce rates. For 25–34-year-old women the highest rates were among those who identified as Hispanic, Another/Multiple races, and American Indian and Alaska Natives race/ethnicities. Finally, among those aged 35-44 the highest rate was among non-Hispanic Black women. The lowest divorce rates for each group were among those aged 65 and older.
  • Asian women experienced the lowest first divorce rates across all racial and ethnic groups. Their highest first divorce rate was observed for 15–24-year-olds (12.0) and exhibited little age variation across the age groups that followed.
  • Hispanic women tended to have lower divorce rates as well, with their highest divorce rate reaching 20.8 among those aged 25-34.
  • For non-Hispanic White women, first divorce rates peaked at 30.8 among 15–24-year-olds, then declined from age 25. They also had the lowest rate across all groups at 4.6 per 1,000 among those 65 and older.
  • Women who identified as Another or Multiracial/ethnic had their highest divorce rate among those aged 25-34 at 31.8, with a steady decline thereafter.
  • Non-Hispanic Black women saw little variation in the first divorce rates among 15–44-year-olds, with the first divorce rate peaking at 34.0 among those aged 35-44.
  • For women who identified as American Indian/Alaska Native, the highest first divorce rate was observed among those aged 25-34 at 41.6, which was the highest first divorce rate for this age group and the highest overall rate across all racial/ethnic groups.

Figure 2. Women’s First Divorce Rate by Age and Detailed Race/Ethnicity

Data Source:
Ruggles, S., Flood, S., Sobek, M., Backman, D., Chen, A., Cooper, G., Richards, S., Rodgers, R., & Schouweiler, M. (2024). IPUMS USA: Version 15.0 [dataset]. Minneapolis, MN: IPUMS. https://doi.org/10.18128/D010.V15.0  

References:
Brown, S. L., Lin, I.-F., & Julian, C. A. (2024). Gray divorce during the COVID-19 Pandemic. Journals of Gerontology: Series B, 79(2), 1-6. https://doi.org/10.1093/geronb/gbad162

Loo, J. (2024). Divorce: More than a Century of Change, 1900 & 2022. Family Profiles, FP-24-11. Bowling Green, OH: National Center for Family & Marriage Research. https://doi.org/10.25035/ncfmr/fp-24-11

Westrick-Payne, K. K. (2023). First divorce rate, 2021. Family Profiles, FP-23-18. Bowling Green, OH: National Center for Family & Marriage Research. https://doi.org/10.25035/ncfmr/fp-23-18    

Suggested Citation:
Bankey, N. (2025). First divorce rate by age and race/ethnicity. Family Profiles, FP-25-06. Bowling Green, OH: National Center for Family & Marriage Research. https://doi.org/10.25035/ncfmr/fp-25-06

This project is supported with assistance from Bowling Green State University. From 2007 to 2013, support was also provided by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation. The opinions and conclusions expressed herein are solely those of the author(s) and should not be construed as representing the opinions or policy of any agency of the state or federal government.