Frequency, Duration, and Probability of Marriage and Divorce

Information on marital histories of adults in the entire United States is summarized from the Survey of Economic Opportunity. Four-fifths of whites and two-thirds of Negroes in the cohort who married at least 20 years ago had married only once. One-fourth of the whites and nearly one-half of the Negroes in this cohort with youthful marriages had experienced divorce. Intervals between marital events were generally shorter for whites than Negroes. Probabilities of marriage were highest for single men in their late twenties; this cohort had the lowest probability of divorce. Men with an incomplete high school or college education had high probabilities of early divorce and early remarriage. Poor men tended to postpone divorce and, after a short period of divorce, not to remarry.