You're looking at Less Wrong's discussion board. This includes all posts, including those that haven't been promoted to the front page yet. For more information, see About Less Wrong.

Douglas_Knight comments on [Link] More ominous than a [Marriage] strike - Less Wrong Discussion

6 Post author: GLaDOS 04 January 2014 05:34PM

You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.

Comments (90)

You are viewing a single comment's thread. Show more comments above.

Comment author: Douglas_Knight 08 January 2014 07:58:04PM *  9 points [-]

My number is from from Stevenson-Wolfers (alt alt), particularly Figure 2, page 37. It is not a misinterpretation. To be more precise, about 50% of first marriages from the 70s made it to 25 years. First marriages from 80s appear to a do a little better, heading for maybe 55%, but it is too soon to tell [this previously said that it was too soon only because of binning decisions, but that's wrong; the problem is that the data was collected in 2001].

Comment author: Desrtopa 08 January 2014 09:33:18PM 0 points [-]

That paper also reflects the consensus of all the other resources I've been able to find in that the rate of divorce seems to be declining since the 70s; it may be too early to be overwhelmingly certain, but the evidence suggests that not only are the odds better for a marriage in the 1980s than the 1970s, but that the odds are better still in the 1990s, and then better than that in the 2000s.

Comment author: Douglas_Knight 08 January 2014 10:38:04PM 2 points [-]

Could you point to the comparison of the 2000s to the 1990s? As to the 90s vs the 80s, the difference is trivial.

Comment author: Desrtopa 08 January 2014 10:52:21PM 0 points [-]

That the rate has continued to fall through the 2000s I did not take from that paper, but from the other sources I encountered while searching for the raw statistics. A bit more searching suggests some disagreement on the state of the trend between different agencies.

Comment author: Douglas_Knight 08 January 2014 11:01:03PM 2 points [-]

The raw divorce rate might fall purely for demographic reasons, such as the aging population. I think Stevenson and Wolfers talk about this.