A recent study in Business Insider, using census data from the Minnesota Population Center’s Integrated Public Microdata Sample project, has offered some insight into when people are most likely to file for a divorce.

Researchers looked at the outcome of marriages by each year of age in 2013 (the most recent year that had full data available). They paid particular attention to the responses to questions regarding marital status and the number of marriages individuals had. Comparing these numbers led to researchers being able to determine the proportion of the population at every age that was never married, was in its first marriage, had ended a first marriage or was widowed. The group that had ended its first marriage combined people who were divorced, separated or in a second, third or later marriage.

What did the numbers show?

In 2013, approximately 12 percent of 30-year-old individuals had already ended at least one marriage. The percentage of people who had been married multiple times or were separated or divorced reached its peak at age 59, at which 42 percent of respondents said they had. Approximately 43 percent of 59-year-olds were still in their first marriages.

Researchers went on to compare these findings to numbers from earlier decades. In both 1960 and 1980, there was a larger percentage of people in their 20s who had marriages end than respondents in 2013. In fact, many more of these people were in their second marriages in both 1960 and 1980 than 2013.

Older people are far more likely to fall into that category today than in years based. Combining this with the results of 20-somethings from 1960 and 1980, it would appear that divorce is becoming less common—especially among people under the age of 30.

This study is interesting, but the fact remains that divorce still happens all the time in Minnesota. If you need sound legal guidance as you dissolve your marriage, reach out to a knowledgeable Willmar family law attorney with Anderson Larson Saunders & Klaassen PLLP today.