From the course: Everyday Statistics, with Eddie Davila

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Divorce

Divorce

From the course: Everyday Statistics, with Eddie Davila

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Divorce

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- [Instructor] We often hear that 50% of marriages end in divorce. Some folks almost seem to take it for granted, but is it true? Well, it seems that the answer to this question is a bit unclear. How can we measure the divorce rate? One way it's done is to track the number of marriages in a year, and then, track the number of divorces in that same year. 100 couples get married, 50 couples get divorced. The divorce rate for that year was 50%. That doesn't seem to make a lot of sense, does it? Suppose there are already 10,000 married couples in that population? 50% of marriages are not really ending up in divorce. So, while in 2010, the CDC reported that there were 2.1 million marriages and about 870,000 divorces, it would be unwise to say that the divorce rate was 41%. Let's also consider that marriage and divorce data is collected at the state level, and not all states do a very good job of collecting this data.…

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