Hey I have a bunch of questions. First, for Zebra: Originally Posted By: Zebra
We all know approx. 50% of all marriages fail. 2nd marriages fail about 62% of the time, 3rd about 70%. I've read that approx 80% of all married couples are separated at sometime in their marriage for 2 months or more. (I know I've been separated by work for a month, and by emotion for months, even tho she never left). 14% of all divorced couples eventually remarry EACH OTHER!!! 2/3rds of all divorced couples would choose to stay married to each other if they could have solved the primary difficulties that led to the breakup. Many people who are divorced never seriously try to save the marriage before the divorce.
source? IS this really true or did you read this stuff in an email you got from a friend of a friend of a friend?
I didn't want to provide footnotes to this in the first place, so I should never have posted it. However, now I have done the research, and here are some sources that support most of it. Understand, I've been here on this and other boards for years, and at one time or other, I researched lots of useless stats to show to my WAW. Some amused her, some pissed her off. Most brought encouragement to me. Over the years, is seems that the internet had changed from a "library" where you could find all sorts of information and confirmation to more of a "yellow pages" where you find some info and lots of people who want to sell you something. As a result, I've had trouble coming up with supporting statements such as I once found. Sorry
The bulk of this statement, the 80% separation, and the 14% remarriage rate and the 2/3rd who say they would have stayed married if they could have solved primary issues I found in a book "Getting Back Together", 2nd edition, by Bettie Youngs and Masa Goetz, bottom of page 2. I since found support for the remarriage stat on the internet (can't find it now) but never found further support for the separation stat or "2/3rds" stat. Take it up with the authors.
The failure stats have been around for a long time. In all honesty, I've seen the "first marriage" stated as low as 40%, and it seems that "all marriages" contain that number plus the 2nd and 3rd marriage failure rate in the calculation. They too are all more difficult to find quoted these days. It seems that statisticians used as sources are stating the data in a different way, maybe it's more accurate, but the stats are now seem to be stated as "annual failures per 1000 marriages" and don't make much sense to anyone but a statistician. I did find two web sites that support these statements. http://www.divorcerate.org/ http://www.divorcemag.com/statistics/statsWorld.shtml
So, no, I didn't hear this in an email from a friend of a friend, but I must admit most of what I have simply "heard" is from sources on this board, or from books I've heard mentioned on this board, or other books I found myself or that were recommended by therapists.
Sorry for any confusion. I promise to quote no more stats. The follow up (or foul up) homework after the fact is too stressful...
