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MadMadMax's avatar

What states have the highest divorce rate? Give it a guess before you look it up :)

Asked by MadMadMax (3402points) January 25th, 2014

Yes, you can easily find out by googling it. But try to guess what
states have the highest divorce rate in the USA and think of the reasons WHY?

Just a game.

Observing members: 0 Composing members: 0

24 Answers

talljasperman's avatar

Alaska? Or Utah? Or Nevada?

Judi's avatar

I saw an article about this. It’s the Bible Belt. All those young kids gettin hitched so god will bless their sex.

johnpowell's avatar

Florida. They thought they were renewing their drivers license but went to the wrong office and filled out the wrong form.

MadMadMax's avatar

“And think of the reasons why?”

SQUEEKY2's avatar

If I had to guess I would have to say California just cause,am I right???

Kropotkin's avatar

The most puritanical, culturally authoritarian, the most religious, righteous and conservative states.

MadMadMax's avatar

It’s the deep south. The buckle of the bible belt.

The places where most people get married in high school because the girl was pregnant. No sex eduction.

Then they get a divorce and she’s stuck with a brood at 16.

No options, no planned parenthood and no morning after pills in the pharmacies. Just uneducated, unprotected kids with no options.

Actually the places where people are freer have lower divorce rates.

Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Texas. God Bless then every one.

‘Puzzling Paradox’: Study Finds Higher Divorce Rate Among Conservative Protestants
by Andrew Kirell | 10:51 am, January 24th, 2014

http://www.mediaite.com/online/puzzling-paradox-study-finds-higher-divorce-rate-among-conservative-protestants/

MadMadMax's avatar

Want your marriage to last? Don’t go to church.

snowberry's avatar

@MadMadMax Aaaaand just to put things in perspective, hubby and I have been in church every week for 36 years. His folks have done the same for 62 years. Likewise for multiple other couples we know.

So the statistics may say one thing, but there are people (actually a decent number) who are like me and my friends/family.

As for where we live, we’ve migrated all over.

JLeslie's avatar

I couldn’t open the link.

I would think part of the reason they get married earlier is because fewer go to college.

Some get married to have sex. I know someone who did that, but she wasn’t a southerner. Divorced within two years.

Also, if the men have that macho bullshit going on reinforced by their religion, marrying young, babies or not, is a risk, because the girls mature and get to a point where they say, “screw this.” Or, some of them do anyway. I’m not saying all religious men are macho idiots, I don’t think that at all. But, in some sects men are reinforced to be idiots to their wives.

@snowberry I wonder if it is different in your generation? If the stats of young people getting married and staying together are much higher, maybe they should divide the stats by generation. Also, I wonder if they look at the stats by race (there I go mentioning race) how it all rolls out. I thought you were from Utah? Or, am I confusing you with someone else?

filmfann's avatar

It must be one of them states allowing gay marriage, since the Far Right says that would result in higher divorce rates. ~

Hmmm… Of the top 6 States with the highest divorce rates, only 2 of them allow gay marriage.

snowberry's avatar

@JLeslie I grew up in Utah, while hubby is from the midwest. We lived in Utah for 11 years. We’ve also lived in 4 other states from coast to coast.

JLeslie's avatar

@snowberry I think each region of the country is different even if the people are very religious in the differing regions. What annoys people I think comes down to politics. We don’t want to hear republicans say they are the party of family values, which is a schtick of their base, their religious base, when their states have the most broken families. Or, hear Christians judging, or telling us the way to stay married is to be Christian (I have heard exactly that at a wedding) when they can’t keep their own marriages together. The whole hypocrisy thing.

But, I think we actually can’t look at the south and its divorce rate and chalk it all up to religion as I said above.

Kardamom's avatar

I’m not looking at Google or the other answers yet.

I’m guessing California for #1 simply because of the diversity and number of people, plus the Hollywood factor.

Maybe tying for second would be New York for the same reason as above, and then Nevada, because divorce is much more easily and quickly attainable.

MadMadMax's avatar

^^

It’s the deep south. The buckle of the bible belt.

The places where most people get married in high school because the girl was pregnant. No sex eduction.

Then they get a divorce and she’s stuck with a brood at 16.

No options, no planned parenthood and no morning after pills in the pharmacies. Just uneducated, unprotected kids with no options.

Actually the places where people are freer have lower divorce rates.

Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Texas. God Bless then every one.

‘Puzzling Paradox’: Study Finds Higher Divorce Rate Among Conservative Protestants
by Andrew Kirell | 10:51 am, January 24th, 2014

http://www.mediaite.com/online/puzzling-paradox-study-finds-higher-divorce-rate-among-conservative-protestants/

JLeslie's avatar

@MadMadMax The divorce rates in many of those states are highest among black couples. Black couples might be conservative Christians in many instances, but they are not conservative politically. They also are more likely to be poor, and poverty probably influences the stats also. In fact, I would bet poverty is one of the biggest factors working against couples, and race is not really what should be counted, but rather income level, but I haven’t seen stats on divorce and income level.

MadMadMax's avatar

Poverty is a huge factor. Private prisons, lack of heath care, poorly funded public education, accessibility of contraceptives, the culture itself and POLITICS; it one big ole massive clusterfuck.

Once you focus on the area, you go down a rabbit hole.

JLeslie's avatar

@MadMadMax So maybe that is the real causation? Maybe the religious tend to poor, or the poor tend to be religious, and it isn’t necessarily the religion, but the poverty. The religion might show correlations, but poverty is the real cause. The south is among the poorest states.

MadMadMax's avatar

Religion is not limited to income and virtually everybody in the bible belt is an evangelical.

Religion plays an enormous role in this case. There are no options for “choice”

MadMadMax's avatar

Are we missing somebody here?

JLeslie's avatar

@MadMadMax You might be interested in this short article that explains the divorce statistics with a slight different POV than we usually hear. Breaks things down well I think. It mentions education level and income level being big factors for divorce.

It is true the south tends to be very evangelical, but I bet the CXO’s, lawyers, engineers. and doctors, who are evangelical are less likely to divorce than the poor people who are religious. In the south I would say there are more people with post graduate degrees who still remain very religious than up north. Although, it happens all over the country.

Throughout our history the south has been poor relatively speaking, that probably has changed a lot in the last 40 years, I don’t know how the numbers roll out present day.

This is a map of the US showing percent if people who don’t graduate high school. The majority of Christianity is not promoting dropping out of high school. Some other similar maps with other education infornation.

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