A Census Bureau report released Thursday found that men and
women in the Southern United States have the highest rates of
divorce in the country, while men and women in the Northeast
have the lowest. The report, titled "Marital Events of
Americans: 2009," found that in 2009, 10.2 men per 1,000 and
11.1 women per 1,000 in the South got divorced. By contrast, in
the Northeast, the numbers per thousand for men and women were
7.2 and 7.5, respectively. Overall, the national divorce rate
was 9.2 for men and 9.7 for women. "Divorce rates tend to be
higher in the South because marriage rates are also higher in
the South," Diana Elliott, a family demographer at the Census
Bureau, said in a press release. "In contrast, in the Northeast,
first marriages tend to be delayed and the marriage rates are
lower, meaning there are also fewer divorces." The Census Bureau
called the new report "the first of its kind to describe the
detailed characteristics of marital events among Americans ages
15 and older." The report used dat