For the new generation of empty-nesters, divorce is increasingly common. Among people ages 50 and older, the divorce rate has doubled over the past two decades, according to new research by sociologists Susan Brown and I-Fen Lin of Bowling Green State University, whose paper, “The Gray Divorce Revolution,” Prof. Brown will present at Ohio State University this April. The paper draws on data from the 1990 U.S. Vital Statistics Report and the 2009 American Community Survey, administered by the U.S. Census Bureau, which asked all respondents if they’d divorced in the past 12 months.
Though overall national divorce rates have declined since spiking in the 1980s, “gray divorce” has risen to its highest level on record, according to Prof. Brown. In 1990, only one in 10 people who got divorced was 50 or older; by 2009, the number was roughly one in four. More than 600,000 people ages 50 and older got divorced in 2009.
I’ve noticed this phenomenon even in my congregation.
Is this an age or a cohort effect?
In other words is it because something has happened which will happen to everyone from now on when they get to be 50+ … or where they the ones that had high divorce rates when they were in their 20s and 30s and 40s and they just happen to be 50+ now?
“For many boomers, it is not their first marital split. Fifty-three percent of the people over 50 now getting divorced have done so at least once before.”
I’ve ready many accuse Boomers of being selfish and gratification-centric, and the statistics don’t help. Perhaps the succeeding generations will learn from the excesses and deficiencies of the previous generations. Alas, though, the current generations have done the Boomers one better; many aren’t bothering to marry at all. Lord have mercy.