Did you know that there may be a parallel between where you live and your likelihood of divorce? New data analysis revealed the 10 states with the highest divorce rates, and a surprising number of red states — those that are more politically and morally conservative — made the list. There is a belief that people in blue states are more likely to divorce, but the numbers say otherwise. People who live in red states are often more religious and tend to believe in things like traditional “family values,” in which divorce is generally frowned upon.
But perhaps there’s something about those conservative beliefs that is actually pushing more couples toward divorce in the long run.
A recent data analysis, done by Tarotoo, looked at the states with the highest divorce rates based on divorce frequency, per capita spending on dating apps, and Google-related searches on breakups.
It may come as a shock to some, but Oklahoma comes in at No 1. with 9.71 divorces per 1,000 people. Google searches for the word “divorce” coming from there are also incredibly high, with a score of 86/100. Searches for the word “breakup” are also high: 67/100. That’s nearly 20% more than its bordering state, New Mexico.
Alabama comes in second for highest divorce rate with 8.80 divorces per 1,000 people. Their search interest for divorce is third highest, but there’s a more concentrated focus on legal separation.
The other eight states rounding out the top 10 are Nevada, Mississippi, Tennessee, Kentucky, Delaware, West Virginia, New Hampshire, and Arkansas. That means only two of the top 10 states for divorce are blue states.
Red states having more divorces isn’t a new phenomenon, either. In 2014, a study was published addressing these findings. “Red States, Blue States, and Divorce: Understanding the Impact of Conservative Protestantism on Regional Variation in Divorce Rates,” which was published in the American Journal of Sociology, dug deeper into what contributes to red states and divorce.
University of Texas at Austin professor Jennifer Glass and her fellow researchers found that conservative religious culture plays a major part in divorce due to “the social institutions they create.”
Glass concluded that putting pressure on young people to get married sooner, judging people living together before getting married, teaching abstinence only, and restricting access to contraception all contribute to having children at younger ages, which creates unstable marriages.
“If you live in a marriage market where everybody marries young, you postpone marriage at your own risk. The best catches … are going to go first,” Glass told The Los Angeles Times.
It will be interesting to see how higher divorce rates change under this current political administration. In states such as Louisiana, Texas, Oklahoma, and Nebraska, Republicans are trying to end no-fault divorce, NPR reported. No-fault divorce began in 1969, when states realized that they shouldn’t be able to decide what makes a marriage bad enough for divorce.
“The same people who are cheering the repeal of Roe v. Wade and the elimination of protection for abortion rights, those are the same people who want to get rid of no-fault divorce,” Southern Methodist University’s Dedman School of Law professor Joanna Grossman told the outlet.
According to Grossman, one of the reasons this may not happen is because it would “wreak havoc on the family court system.”
