Divorce Rates Continue Dropping in U.S.

Is divorce a dirty word again? Divorce rates have been on the decline since reaching a peak in the 1980s, research shows, but there’s also an attitude shift about divorce. An article in the New York Times reports that many women considering divorce feel ostracized by other married couples, while also revealing that many view divorce not as helping women find “freedom” but rather as a “selfish” act. Another interesting trend noted in a 2010 study by the National Marriage Project: college-educated Americans are less likely to divorce than the rest of the population. 11 percent of college-educated Americans divorce within the first ten years of marriage, compared with 37 percent of the rest of the population, who call it quits within the first decade.