There's a commonly cited statistic that half of marriages end in divorce. But here's the thing: That doesn't mean there's a 50 percent chance that you'll get divorced. Divorce rates have dropped over the last few years as people wait longer to get married, which means that old statistics won't necessarily apply to a hypothetical divorce that would take place 10 years from now.
FlowingData has attempted to provide a more accurate representation of the divorce rate through this interactive chart, which lets you select a specific demographic and spits back a visual representation of your likelihood of divorce at different ages.
The data are based on the 2014 American Community Survey, so they'll probably have limited applicability outside the U.S. today, particularly with regard to racial demographics. That said, they reveal some interesting trends. Among employed people, women are more likely to get divorced than men, with the rates at 38 percent vs. 32 percent for the oldest age group. But for those not in the labor force, men are far more likely to get divorced, with a 42 percent rate for the oldest group compared with women's 35 percent.
The gender breakdown also switches based on education: Among those with education through or beyond college, women are more likely to get divorced, whereas men are more likely to get divorced than women when they don't have college degrees.
Overall, you have less to worry about than you might think. The average employed woman has only a two percent chance of getting divorced by the time she's 30, a 19 percent chance by 50, and a 38 percent chance at 72 and over. So, despite the depressing statistics you may ordinarily hear, the odds are actually good that your marriage will last.
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