For many years, the divorce rate has remained steady, at least for the general population. Everyone who got married knew that they had an equal chance of their marriage working or not.
Washington state has had a divorce rate similar to the national average. How does the current divorce rate in Washington state compare to the average divorce rate in the entire country? Which cities in the state have the highest divorce rates?
Washington Cities with the Highest Rates of Divorce
The Washington State Department of Health (DOH) has identified the counties with the highest divorce rate:
- King (5300+ divorces)
- Pierce (3000+)
- Lincoln (2300+)
- Snohomish (1900+)
- Clark (1500+)
- Spokane (1500+)
These are the top cities in Washington state with the highest divorce rate:
- Clarkston, WA: Clarkston is located in Asotin County. In 2019, USA Today looked at different reports from the US Census Bureau. They examined factors such as population, cost of living, and median household income. Their findings showed that 22.7% of the 7400 people living in Clarkston are divorced.
- Hoquiam, WA: Hoquiam is a smaller city with a population of 8,500 people. Only 3% of people live in rural areas. The percentage of divorces in this city is 11%.
- Aberdeen, WA: Aberdeen is another city in Washington state with a high divorce rate. It has a population of over 16,000 people. The rate of marriages ending in divorce in this city is 10%.
- Kelso, WA: Kelso is located in the southwest part of Washington state and has a population of 12,300 people. The current divorce rate in Kelso is 9%.
- Wenatchee, WA: Wenatchee is a big city with more than 34,000 people. The divorce rate in Wenatchee is currently 9%, similar to Kelso.
- Sumner, WA: Out of all the cities on this list, only Sumner and Sultan are located in the counties with the highest divorce rate in Washington state. Sumner is a city located in Pierce County. It has a population of almost 11,000 people and a divorce rate of 9%.
- Sultan, WA: Sultan is located in Snohomish County. Out of a population of almost 5200 people, 46% are married and 14.5% are divorced. This means that the divorce rate is 9%.
- Sequim, WA: Sequim is another city in Washington state that has a 9% divorce rate. The city has a population of 7,400.
- Longview, WA: The city with the highest divorce rate in Washington state on this list is Longview, WA. It has over 38,000 residents, making it the largest city. It’s interesting to note that even though the city is larger, the divorce rate (8%) is not as high as in some smaller cities.
- Moses Lake, WA: Moses Lake is another one of the bigger cities on the list, with a population of 24,000 residents. It has a divorce rate of 8%.
Also Read: Many Large U.S. Cities Are in Deep Financial Trouble
How Does Washington Compare to the US and World Divorce Rates?
In 2016, the Department of Health (DOH) reported that Washington had almost 24,500 divorces across the state. Overall, the rate is 3.4%, which is lower than the rate of 5.9% in the 1990s. These rates are calculated by dividing the number of divorces by the total population and expressing it as the number of divorces per 1000 people.
According to the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the current divorce rate in the US is 2.9%, which means there were over 782,000 divorces. The numbers may not be completely accurate because only 45 states and the District of Columbia provided their numbers to the CDC. According to INSIDER.com, they compared their own data with the data from the CDC and discovered that Nevada has the highest divorce rate among all the states, at 4.5%.
In 2018, USA Today reported that a professor from the University of Maryland discovered that the divorce rate in the United States decreased by 18% from 2008 to 2016.
Divorce rates have been increasing globally since the 1970s. In 1970, the divorce rate around the world was 2.6% for every 1000 people. The average percentage had increased to 5.5% by 2006. Kazakhstan had the highest rate of 19.01% per 1000 people among the 83 countries studied. WorldPopulationReview.com states that the United States has the sixth highest divorce rate.
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