One of every three men and women walking down the aisle in the United States has been married before, but the remarriage rate for divorced Americans has been declining, according to a National Center for Health Statistics report.
The government report also shows that most divorced men marry divorced women and that of those divorced Americans remarrying in 1983, the women were on the average 34 years old and the men an average 37 years old.The report is based on samples of records from states that compile marriage and divorce statistics. It studies data collected from 1970 to 1983, the latest year for which most of the figures were available.
But although the number of remarriages was growing over the 14-year period, the pool of divorced men and women was growing faster, the report said.
In 1983, the remarriage rate for divorced women was 91.6 per 1,000 compared with 123.3 per 1,000 in 1970. The rate for divorced men was 142.1 per 1,000 compared with 204.5 per 1,000 in 1970, the report said.
"Thus, only 9 percent of divorced women and 14 percent of divorced men remarried in 1983, compared with 12 percent of divorced women and 20 percent of divorced men in 1970," the report said.
The figures also show that most women marry men of the same marital status. In 1983, the report said, 55 percent of all women and men who married were both single, 19 percent were both divorced and 2 percent were both widowed.