Unfortunately, this statistic is bullshit. To get a meaningfull divorce RATE, you don't use per capita, because per capita includes SINGLE people, of which MA has many many more than TX, and single people aren't getting divorced.
This chart gives a better idea .

It shows that MA has 5.9 marriages per 1000 people and 2.5 divorces, for a divorce rate of 42.3%, and TX has 8.4 marriages and 3.9 divorces, or 46.4%.

Why don't you analyze the statistics which seem to support your positions the same way you do the ones which support an opposite position?
z | 10.23.06 - 12:26 pm | #

Is that 5.9 weddings per 1,000 people are or are just 59 out of every 1,000 people married?
KPC | 10.23.06 - 1:43 pm | #

That's 5.9 weddings per 1000 people in the year 2002, so I'm guessing 11.8 (or 1.18%) people got married that year while 0.78% got divorced.

I could easily rewrite the article quoted by saying that Nevada has the highest family values in the country (67.4 marriages/1000 people) while connecticutt and mass. have the lowest family values (5.7 and 5.9) and it would be just as valid as what they say. In other words, not valid at all.
z | 10.23.06 - 4:48 pm | #

The whole claim of a high divorce rate is absurd. Comparing how many people wed and how many people divorced in one year does not determine the percentage of marriages that end in divorce. If one truly wanted to determine the divorce rate, one must include all the people who got married in past years, and remain married.

I think the inflated number is floated around to make people who fail at marriage feel better about themselves. Somehow, it's not that they've made poor decisions and failed; it is a societal problem.
KPC | 10.23.06 - 9:17 pm | #

To add to the last comment, this is especially true when one considers that many divorcees remarry and then divorce again.
Anonymous | 11.08.06 - 9:37 pm | #