© 1999 - 2010
Max-Planck-Gesellschaft

The topography of the divorce plateau
Levels and trends in union stability in the United States after 1980

Services
Bookmark this page
Send this article to a friend
Download to Citation Manager
file Refman format (RIS)
file ProCite format (RIS)
file EndNote format
file BibTeX format
Citations and Similar Articles
PubMed
Articles by Kelly Raley
Articles by Larry Bumpass
Google Scholar
Articles by Kelly Raley
Articles by Larry Bumpass
Article and its Citations
 

Kelly Raley
Larry Bumpass

 
VOLUME 8 - ARTICLE 8
PAGES 245 - 260
Date Received: 16 Oct 2002
Date Published: 23 Apr 2003

http://www.demographic-research.org/volumes/vol8/8/

doi:10.4054/DemRes.2003.8.8
   
PDF file Click the icon to view and/or download the PDF file.
Once you are in the PDF file, use your browser back button to return to this page.

Abstract
The probability of divorce in the U.S. has remained constant for the last two decades at about 'half of all marriages.' While this estimate is well established, and marked differentials in divorced rates are well known, there are no reliable estimates of differences in the cumulative probability of lifetime divorce. Using data from the 1990 June CPS, we document very large differentials by race, age at marriage, and education in the probability that recent cohorts of marriage will end in separation or divorce. Then, using data from the 1995 NSFG, we find important increases in differentials in marital dissolution, and especially in all unions, during this period of stable aggregate rates. These results indicate that examining only at marital transitions obscures the growth in family instability that has resulted among some groups because of an increasing proportion of unions begun as cohabitation.

Author's affiliation
Kelly Raley
University of Texas at Austin, United States of America
Larry Bumpass
University of Wisconsin, United States of America

Keywords
cohabitation, divorce, USA

Word count (Main text)
4164

Other articles by the same author/authors (in Demographic Research)
file[19-47] Cohabitation and children's living arrangements: New estimates from the United States
file[11-14] Marital Dissolution in Japan: Recent Trends and Patterns

Most recent similar articles in Demographic Research
file [22-5] Life expectancy is the death-weighted average of the reciprocal of the survival-specific force of mortality (USA)
file [21-24] When Harry left Sally: A New Estimate of Marital Disruption in the U.S., 1860 - 1948 (divorce)
file [21-8] Is Poland really 'immune' to the spread of cohabitation? (cohabitation)
file [21-7] "Living Apart Together" relationships in the United States (cohabitation)
file [21-4] Neither single, nor in a couple. A study of living apart together in France (cohabitation)

[ Back to previous page ]