The state of Tennessee is one of the southern states that appear to be ‘divorce happy.’ According to the census report released on Thursday, TN is one of the 14 states which had much a higher divorce rate than the national average using data gathered from the 2009 American Community Survey (ACS). What’s more intriguing is that Nashville’s divorce rate is even higher than the combined rate of all the southern states.
The Nashville-Davidson County data from City-Data.com shows Nashville’s divorce rate sitting a 13.2 while the newly released Census statistics reports a combined average of the southern states at 10.2 per 1,000 for men and 11.1 per 1,000 for women.
These figures are alarming as Nashville is not only in the heart of the Bible belt, but has a higher than average educational statistic. Previous studies have suggested the less educated have a higher likelihood of being divorced.
The speculations on why Nashville has a high divorce rate are limitless, (i.e., divorcees may move to Nashville to start over), but in regards to the statistics for all the southern states, Diana Elliott, a family demographer with the U.S. Census Bureau and co-author of the recent reports believes it is due to a higher marriage rate.
Elliott says “Divorce rates tend to be higher in the South because marriage rates are also higher in the South, In contrast, in the Northeast, first marriages tend to be delayed and the marriage rates are lower, meaning there are also fewer divorces." Reuters
Couples in the Christian community or individuals who have a higher education are not immune to divorce. Experts are now focusing on the age of marriage as being a risk factor for divorces.
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August 2011, US Census Bureau - Marital Events of Americans: 2009
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