It's been well-documented that marriage rates in the U.S. have been trending downward for quite some time. What's less publicized, however, is that divorce seems to be following the same pattern.
Ana Swanson over at The Washington Post's Wonk Blog stumbled across a fascinating graph that tracks the rates of marriage and divorce over the past 144 years. Such a visualization provides some context to both rising and falling marriage and divorce rates over the years.
For example, it appears that marriage rates dropped pretty dramatically during the Great Depression, but divorce rates continued to rise slowly, despite the fact the two numbers typically correlate.
The chart, which you can see below, comes from a blog posted earlier this month by Randal S. Olson, a postdoctoral researcher who studies artificial intelligence and blogs about data visualization on the side.
You can read more about the data behind Olson's chart at his blog, or read about Swanson's analysis over at The Washington Post.
Related links:
The 3 most important elements of a successful marriage
‘Weird’ things that increase the risk of divorce
U.S. marriage rate hits new low and may continue to decline
JJ Feinauer is a writer for Deseret News National. Email: jfeinauer@deseretdigital.com, Twitter: jjfeinauer.