Divorce threat persists throughout marriage

USA Today reports:

The Census collected detailed marital responses in 2004 from 27,000 men and 32,000 women as part of its periodic Survey of Income and Program Participation.

"This is pretty much the only data source for this detailed look at marital history for both men and women," says Rose Kreider, a Census Bureau family demographer.

Though 74.4% of men who married between 1970 and 1974 stayed married at least 10 years, just 46.2% were still married after 30 years. Among women, 71.6% were still married after 10 years, compared with 42.1% after 30 years. Cherlin says the number of those whose spouses died is small; nearly all marriages that end by 30 years resulted from divorce rather than death.

An interesting article.