Wrecked Homes in
America. . . Amazing Divorce Rates
Divorces in the United States in 1916 numbered 109,000,
against 42,000 in 1890. American homes are dissolving at the rate of 300 a day
the year through.
Here’s a pretty kettle of fish for Christian America.
One marriage in every nine in the United States winds up in
a divorce court.
In 23 states of the Union the ratios of divorce to marriage
are still more amazing.
One marriage in five ends in divorce in Oklahoma, Montana,
California, and Idaho. In Washington state every fourth couple is divorced, in
Oregon every third, and in Nevada every second. Naturally the ratio of divorces
to marriages in Nevada is high because of the divorce mill at Reno. It is fair
to say that nearly three-fourths of the divorces in this state were granted to
non-residents in 1916.
But this is not the worst of it: the divorce rate in the
country-at-large steadily increases from decade to decade. In 1890 it was 53
per 100,000 inhabitants; in 1916 it was 112 or more than double. The marriage
rate moved up some 15 percent during this quarter century or so, but the
divorce rate increase more than 100 percent.
Things are getting steadily worse in every state in the
Union, except Main, West Virginia, South Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi, North
and South Dakota, Colorado, and the District of Columbia.
More than a third or nearly 37 percent of all divorces the
country over were granted for desertion; and it’s the wife that most often
deserts. A full half of the divorces granted to husbands was for this cause
alone. Nearly three-fifths of the divorces were granted to childless couples, while
cruelty accounts for more than a fourth or 28 percent of the total, and
infidelity for only 11.5 percent.
It is fairly easy to rank the states according to the number
of divorces granted in 1916, but it is difficult or impossible to compare the
social status of the states and to rank them according to the prevalence or
absence of the social ills that give rise to divorce; so because of the lack of
uniformity in the legal grounds for divorce, and also because of the varying
attitudes and humors of judges and juries. Thus, in 1916 South Carolina granted
no divorces for any cause whatsoever, neither did it require marriage licenses
or marriage records of any sort. Nevertheless it is possible that South
Carolina has wrecked and wretched homes due to the same social ills that break
up family groups in her sister states. Divorces do not exist in that state, but
separations are common enough to cause alarm.
Divorces in Carolina
In 1916 the divorces granted in our own state numbered 668,
not including the divorces in 11 counties not reported by the court clerks.
Some of our most populous city-counties turned in no divorce figures—Forsyth,
Cumberland, and Lenoir, among others.
North Carolina had a smaller divorce rate than any other
state in the Union except South Carolina where divorces were abolished by law
in 1878.
Nevertheless our homes are being wrecked by divorce at the
rate of about two a day the year around.
But even more alarming is the increase of the evil. Divorces
in North Carolina have multiplied more than 2 ½ times over in the 26 years
between 1890 and 1916. The increase is from 12 to 31 per 100,000 of population
during a quarter century!
Our increase in population in 26 years—from 1890 to 1916—was
50 percent; the increase in marriages was 65 percent; but the increase in
divorces was 253 percent.
The rates for North Carolina counties in 1916 range from
zero in Alexander, Gates, Davie, Jones, Pender, and Tyrrell where no divorces
were granted in 1916, to 119 per 100,000 of population in Transylvania.
Transylvania is the only county in the state with a divorce
rate higher than that of the United States, 119 against 112. It makes the
student wonder what the matter can be in Transylvania.
Other high divorce rates appear in Wilson and Swain—they are
around three times the average of the state-at-large.
In Carteret, Hyde, Durham, Camden, and Buncombe the divorce
rates are more than twice the state rate.
The rates in 28 counties are higher than the average for the
state.
Nine of these 28 counties are in the foot hill and mountain regions,
where a very few years ago divorce was almost unknown.
What Are the Explanations?
So far we are not venturing to consider the causes of our
increasing divorce rates in North Carolina and the United States. Divorce is an
exceedingly complicated social problem everywhere in Christendom. We are simply
giving the bare facts as they appear in Marriage
and Divorce, a Federal Census Bureau Bulletin that has just reached our
desk.
There is no more important problem in this or any other
state. If the American home goes to pieces under the stress of increasing
industrialism and urbanization, then our civilization is doomed.
There are other tables in our work-shop that have been
figured out of this bulletin: showing the states ranked in order from low to
high according to the ratios of marriage to divorce; and the counties of North
Carolina ranked according to divorce rates; and so on.
If there be any manifest public interest in this vital
matter these tables will be given to our readers in subsequent issues of the University News Letter.
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Divorces in the
United States, Per 100,000 Inhabitants in 1916
Based on the 1919 Federal Census Bulletin on Marriage and
Divorce.
Rate for the country-at-large, 112; for North Carolina—31—the
lowest rate in the United States except in South Carolina which abolished legal
divorces in 1878. The rate for the District of Columbia is only 13.
Divorce Rate Per 100,000 of
Population, By State
0—South Carolina
31—North Carolina
32—New York
40—New Jersey
54—Georgia
58—Pennsylvania
63—Massachusetts
65—North Dakota
67—West Virginia
69—Wisconsin
74—Maryland
77—Louisiana
84—South Dakota
86—Minnesota
91—Virginia and Maine
98—Delaware
101—Alabama and Rhode Island
102—New Mexico
104—Mississippi
113—Colorado
116—Vermont
127—Tennessee
129—Kentucky
132—Nebraska
139—Illinois
143—Kansas
148—Ohio
149—Iowa
152—Florida and Utah
158—New Hampshire
168—Oklahoma
170—Wyoming
171—Missouri
174—Michigan
189—Idaho
201—Indiana
217—Arkansas
225—Washington
240—Arizona
255—Oregon
323—Montana
607—Nevada
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