When it comes to saying “I do,” conventional wisdom and trends documented over the years have suggested that fewer people are getting married and remaining in those marriages over time.
However, according to a recent report from the Florida Department of Health, people across the state are bucking that trend by getting married with greater frequency and keeping those marriages intact through the ensuing years. And although more people are getting married than the national average in the Sunshine State, they also are experiencing fewer divorces on average.
According to the report, slightly more people tied the knot in 2014 than in 2013, both in actual numbers and as a percentage, with the rate of marriages rising three-tenths of a percentage point from the previous year. This represents the end of what has been nearly a decade-long decline in the number of people getting married.
The numbers, while increasing in 2014, still remain lower than the total number recorded in 2006, when 8.8 percent of the population married. In 2014, 7.4 percent of the population married — the equivalent of 13,000 fewer people compared to 2006.
A lower divorce rate
Couples also appear to be staying in their marriages with greater frequency than in the recent past. The data for 2014 indicates that 54 out of 100 marriages end in divorce. The last time this rate was so low was in 1960, with the lowest previously recorded rates occurring 30 years earlier. Many experts credit the declining divorce rate to people getting married later in their 20s or 30s than in years past.
Although these statistics are promising, the fact remains that divorce happens all the time in Florida and across the country. For the guidance and advice you need when dissolving your marriage, speak with a skilled family law attorney at the Law Office of K. Dean Kantaras.