5 Divorce Statistics That Predict The Success Of Your Marriage

Will you go the distance?

By Nicole Weaver — Written on Sep 01, 2022

Photo: Alpha_T / Shutterstock

Many people think they have it all figured out when it comes to divorce. The whole "50 percent of marriages end in divorce" factoid gets thrown around a lot, but is it really true?

Everyone knows someone whose family was torn apart by breakups and separations.

Divorce, specifically, can tear families apart and lead to long-lasting grief. But there's so much more to know about the end of marriages.

Here are five divorce statistics that will predict the success of your marriage:

1. Fifty percent of divorcees regret ending their marriage.

Perhaps this means there is hope after all? A survey asked 2,000 UK men and women who are divorcees, or ended a relationship of at least five years, questions about their feelings over their breakups.

Half of them said they regret splitting ways, 54 percent had second thoughts, and 42 percent considered giving their relationship another try.

2. The more you get remarried, the more likely you'll get divorced.

Some believe you should try and try again when it comes to love. After all, your relationship is worth fighting for, right? But should the same thought process go to a marriage? Statistically, the answer is no.

According to Divorce Statistics, the divorce rate for a first marriage is between 41 percent to 50 percent, second marriages have a divorce rate of 60 percent to 67 percent, and for third marriages, the divorce rate is between 73 percent to 74 percent.

3. In the U.S., divorce rates are highest in the south.

Since the South is usually pegged as being tied to tradition and religion, you wouldn't think it would have that high of a divorce rate. However, according to a Census Bureau report comparing the country's divorce rates, the South had the highest rate of divorce compared to other parts of the country in 2009.

Their rate of divorce was 10.2 per 1,000 men, and 11.1 per 1,000 women. On the flip side, the Northeast had the lowest rate of divorce.

4. Only two U.S. presidents have been divorced.

It's kind of an unwritten rule that presidents have to appear to have a picture-perfect family. Because of that, only two U.S. Presidents have ever been divorced. And those two men are Ronald Reagan and Donald Trump.

In 1940, Reagan married actress Jane Wyman but later divorced her in 1948. They had a daughter named Maureen and adopted a son named Michael together. He then remarried an actress named Nancy Davis in 1952. They had two children, Patricia and Ronald.

Trump was married to Ivana Zelníčková from 1977 to 1992. They had three children: Donald Trump Jr., Ivanka Trump, and Eric Trump. In 1993, Trump married actress Marla Maples after having an affair, and they had one child, Tiffany Trump. After divorcing in 1999, Trump married his third wife, Melania Knauss, who gave birth to his son, Barron, in 2006.

5. Couples with longer commutes are more likely to split.

You may have never put these two things together, but if you commute at least 45 minutes one way to work, your marriage is at risk. At least, according to research done by Erica Sandow from Umea University in Sweden.