There is no single U.S. divorce rate: the CDC/NCHS reports a provisional 2023 rate of 2.4 divorces per 1,000 residents for 45 reporting states and Washington, D.C., while the Census Bureau’s survey-based rate was 7.1 divorces per 1,000 women age 15 and older in 2022. Those figures use different methods and denominators, so they are not interchangeable.
How many divorces happen in the U.S. each year?
The CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) reports 672,502 divorces and a rate of 2.4 per 1,000 population for 2023. These are provisional figures covering 45 reporting states and the District of Columbia, not a complete count for all 50 states. The CDC’s Marriage and Divorce: FastStats page displays these national figures.
NCHS has also announced that final 2024 state-level vital-statistics data were added to its state data collection in May 2026. That makes 2024 the latest state-level release described here, but it does not turn the provisional 2023 FastStats figure into a final national 2024 count. See the 2024 State Data Update announcement for that release.
Why do published divorce rates differ?
The CDC/NCHS and Census Bureau figures measure different things. The CDC rate is based on reported divorces per 1,000 residents; the Census rate is based on women age 15 and older who report having divorced in the last year. The Census Bureau cautions that its survey estimates can differ from NCHS counts because of differences in methodology and data collection.
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| Measure | Numerator and denominator | Year and coverage | What to keep in mind |
|---|---|---|---|
| CDC/NCHS vital statistics | Divorce count per 1,000 residents | 2023 provisional: 672,502 divorces and 2.4 per 1,000; 45 reporting states and D.C. | Decree-based state reporting; annulments are included in the divorce-rate calculation. |
| Census Bureau ACS | Women age 15+ who divorced in the last year per 1,000 women age 15+ | 2022: 7.1; Census trend article published in 2024 | Survey estimate, not the same numerator, denominator, or collection method as NCHS. |
The CDC defines its measure this way: “The divorce rate is the provisional count of divorces per 1,000 people living in the state.” Its Stats of the States: Divorce page explains the state-level measure and reporting coverage. California, Hawaii, Indiana, Minnesota, and New Mexico do not report divorce data to the National Vital Statistics System and are absent from the referenced CDC state map.
Is the divorce rate going down?
In the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey (ACS) series, the rate fell from 9.8 per 1,000 women age 15 and older in 2012 to 7.1 in 2022. The series omits 2020 because of COVID-19-related data-collection impacts. These are ACS rates, not the CDC’s divorces-per-population rate. The Census Bureau describes the trend in How Does Your State Compare With National Marriage and Divorce Trends?
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Which states have the highest and lowest divorce rates?
In the Census Bureau’s 2022 ACS comparison, Arkansas had a rate of 11.9 and Wyoming 11.0, while Vermont’s rate was 4.6 divorces in the last year per 1,000 women age 15 and older. These are examples from that survey measure, not definitive rankings: the Census Bureau warns that not all state differences are statistically significant. State comparisons should be made within the same dataset, year, and denominator—not by mixing ACS values with CDC population rates.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Does the annual divorce rate show the chance a marriage will end in divorce?
No. An annual rate counts divorce events relative to a population or a specified group during a year. It is not the percentage of marriages that will eventually end in divorce. Dividing the number of divorces in a year by the number of marriages in that year does not estimate the lifetime outcome of a group of marriages, because the divorces and marriages do not necessarily involve the same people or marriage cohorts.
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