Remarriage after divorce: recent changes and demographic variations

Using data from US Bureau of the Census publications from the decennial censuses and the Bureau's Current Population Reports, the authors analyze remarriage in the US. Among adults who had ended their 1st marriage in divorce, about 3/4 of the elderly men and 2/3 of the elderly women in both 1970 and 1980 were found to be remarried. However, the general decline in remarriage at the younger ages during the 1970s was accentuated among those under 35 years old. Although the proportion remarried among women with graduate school training was the smallest, that proportion declined less during the 1970s than for women in any other educational level. In both 1970 and 1980, the proportion remarried was positively correlated with personal income for men but negatively for women. An estimated 2/3 of those who end their 1st marriage in divorce will eventually remarry while they have young children living with them. During the lifetime of women in their 2nd marriage after their 1st marriage ended in divorce, only 1/3 of their children are born after remarriage, whereas 2/3 are born before their 2nd marriages. During the 1970s, the proportion of currently divorced adults living alone or sharing the homes of relatives diminished, while the proportion living as cohabitants outside marriage rose substantially. It appears as if both the divorce rate and the remarriage rate are approaching a period of relative stability.