Michigan must have finally recovered from the Great Recession. Or at least, that’s what the most recent marriage rate suggests. The numbers of marriages were at an all time low in 2009, during the worst of the recession, but have rebounded in 2014 to the highest level since 2006.
Of course, with marriages comes the prospect of divorce, although according to the numbers, the divorce rate is lower than it was in 1970. Some of that may be due to the fact that the average age of those getting married is increasing, with only 3 percent of marriages in 2014 among couples younger than age 20.
There is another factor. There are fewer marriages and while the marriage rate has increased in recent years, it is still only at about 50 percent of the number from the middle 1980s. In 2014, more than a quarter of adults age 20 or older in Michigan had never married. In 1960, that number was only 9 percent.
In Oakland County, the marriage rate has fallen 1.8 percent while the divorce rate fell by 2.1 percent between 2000 and 2014.
Of course, why people divorce varies greatly, and it is likely that since the recession, many are very cautious about becoming married. But even the best-prepared couples can find emotional or financial issues that can lead them to go their separate ways. No matter what the statewide trend, divorce remains an essentially personal issue.
Source: mlive.com, “Michigan marriage rate hits 8-year high, and other marriage trends,” Julie Mack, February 8, 2015
