The statistics are real. Nearly half of all marriages end in divorce. And there are several surprising facts as to when this is going to happen.
According to Best Life, statistics for 2018 peg the divorce rate in America somewhere between 42 and 45 percent.
And according to recent numbers, Millennials are actually helping to bring that number down (by as much as 18 percent) simply by waiting until they’re older to tie the knot.
RELATED: How Millennials Have Caused Divorce Rates To Plummet
Whether you’re a Millennial or not, if you’re considering taking the plunge anytime soon, here are 5 factors that can often predict whether or not your marriage will last.
Where you live
According to a report by the National Vital Statistics (by way of Best Life), you have a 27 percent higher chance of divorce if you live in a red state, where people tend to marry young.
Your parents
Did your parents split? If so, you’re 40 percent more likely to seek a divorce from your partner, says Best Life. That number skyrockets to 91 percent if one or both of your parents remarried after the divorce. This is according to Nicholas Wolfinger, author of Understanding the Divorce Cycle: The Children of Divorce in the Own Marriages.
Smoking
A 1990s study conducted at the University of Minnesota found that smokers have a 53 percent increased risk of divorce. It’s not that the act itself leads to divorce, rather smokers often have characteristics and life experiences that make them more divorce-prone than nonsmokers.
Having a daughter
Researchers have discovered that couples who frequently argued were more likely to have a firstborn daughter rather than a son. According to Huffington Post:
Researchers Amar Hamoudi and Jenna Nobles found evidence that suggests female embryos are better able to withstand maternal stress in utero than male embryos. So if a mother is experiencing a rocky relationship from the outset, her female fetus has a better chance of surviving the full term. This theory of characteristic female survival advantage — meaning girls and women of all ages are more likely than boys or men to make it to their next birthday — is a widely accepted concept in research, but Hamoudi and Nobles’ findings are particularly noteworthy because they show that this survival advantage may start at the moment of fertilization, not just at birth.
Your religion
Some have argued that evangelical Protestantism (the typical example of “strong religion”) is correlated with low socio-economic status, and that this explains the increased risk of divorce. However, new research by Jennifer Glass and Philip Levchak suggests that evangelical Protestants’ cultural encouragement of early marriage and discouragement of birth control and higher education attainment explain the higher divorce rate …. among evangelical Protestants.
