Sarah Douglas

SOC 120

November 9, 2007

Marriage and Divorce in Kentucky

The Division of Vital Statistics of the National Center for Health Statistics, CDC performed a study measuring the marriage and divorce rates in all fifty states in the US for the years 1990, 1995, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002. I have chosen to focus on Kentucky’s statistics for this paper. Since 1990, there has been a significant decline in both the marriage and divorce rates in Kentucky. In 1990, the marriage rate in Kentucky was thirteen and a half percent and the divorce rate was five percent.

By 2002, the marriage rate had dropped to nine percent and the divorce rate had dropped to five point two percent. Both the marriage and divorce rates dropped at a steady rate over the years, leveling out between 2001 and 2002. In both 2001 and 2002 the marriage rate was nine percent. In 2002, the divorce rate slightly rose from the five point one percent that it had been in 2000 and 2001 to five point two percent. The most significant declines in the marriage and divorce rates occurred between the years 1990 and 1995. Unfortunately there is no data provided for the five years between, making it fairly difficult to see an accurate trend in the rates. However, the consistency in both the divorce and marriage rates between 2001 and 2002 and huge gap in the earlier years proves that the divorce rate is disappearing.