Not all divorce rates are created equal. There are numerous factors that can contribute to divorce. An article by Glenn Stanton provides some interesting statistics regarding divorce. Cohabitation: cohabiting couples have a 50-80 percent higher likelihood of divorce than non-cohabiting couples. Age: those who marry after age eighteen have a 24 percent reduced risk of divorce. Age Difference: marriages where there is a significant difference in age have twice the risk of divorce than those in which the couples are close in age. Education: only 27 percent of college graduates will divorce by middle age. Family Background: having parents who have never divorced reduces divorce risk by 14 percent. Marital History: being previously divorced markedly elevates one’s risk of divorce. Income: having a collective annual household income of $50,000 or more is associated with a 30 percent lower divorce risk. Beliefs: going into a marriage with husband and wife holding a strong personal conviction that marriage is for life protects against divorce. Desire for Children: a marriage in which the wife desires children but the husband does not is at a 50 percent greater risk of divorce. Sexual History: marrying as non-virgins is associated with “considerably higher” risk of divorce and “dramatically more unstable first marriages.” Smoking: couples in which one partner smokes and the other does not are markedly more likely to divorce compared to couples in which neither spouse does. Marriages in which both smoke were more than twice as likely to dissolve compared with non-smoking couples. Another article had some surprising statistics about divorce in America: 1. Someone gets divorced every 10 to 13 seconds 2. Those who marry when between the ages of 20 to 24 have the highest rate of divorce. These couples are nearly twice as likely to get divorced as those who get …