Divorce by the Numbers
Troubling Statistics
The following are percentages of people in each group
who are or have been divorced:
Jewish |
30% |
Born-again Christian |
27% |
Evangelical Christian |
25% |
Christian, but not born again
|
24% |
Mormon |
24% |
Atheist/agnostic |
21% |
Definitions: People were classified as "born again"
if they said they have made a personal commitment to
Jesus Christ that is important to their life today and
if they answered a multiple choice question about life
after death with "after I die I know I will go to heaven
because I have confessed by sins and accepted Jesus
Christ as my savior." People were classified as evangelical
if they met nine theological criteria.
Generation
Builders (ages 54-72) |
37% |
Baby boomers (ages 35-53) |
34% |
Seniors (ages 79+) |
18% |
Baby Busters (ages 18-34) |
7% |
Ethnicity
Whites |
27% |
Blacks |
22% |
Hispanics |
20% |
Asians |
8% |
Region
Midwest |
27% |
South |
27% |
West |
26% |
Northwest |
19% |
Household Income
Under $20,000 |
27% |
$20,000 - $39,999 |
26% |
$40,000 - $59,000 |
26% |
$60,000 or more |
24% |
Christian Denomination
Non-denominational |
34% |
Baptist |
29% |
Episcopal |
28% |
Pentecostal |
28% |
Methodist |
26% |
Presbyterian |
23% |
Catholic |
21% |
Lutheran |
21% |
Barna surveys went to a randomly picked group of 3,854
people. Surveyors used regional quotas and did multiple
callbacks. Their statistics have an error rate of plus
or minus two percent with a confidence level of 95 percent.
George Barna said, "of more than 70 other moral behaviors
we study, when we compare Christians to non-Christians
we rarely find substantial difference."
Cohabitation and Divorce
Here are some troubling statistics taken from Should
We Live Together? pubished by the National
Marriage Project at the Univeristy of Virginia.
"Fully three-quarters of children born to cohabiting
parents will see their parents split up before they
reach age 16, whereas only about a third of children
born to married parents face a similar fate."
"Annual rates of depression among cohabiting
couples are more than three times what they are among
married couples."
"And women in cohabiting relationships are more
likely than married women to suffer physical and sexual
abuse."
"Two studies, one in Canada and the other in
the United States, found that women in cohabiting
relationships are about nine times more likely to
be killed by their partner than are women in marital
relationships."
Jim Lewis |