NEW MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE STATISTICS FOR LONG ISLAND
A recent article in Newsday contained some interesting information regarding marriage and divorce on Long Island. The piece notes that:
1. In 2005, there were 7,104 divorces recorded in Nassau and Suffolk counties, and 15,444 marriage licenses issued.
2. Between 1997 and 2005, the number of marriage licenses fell from 22, 113 to 15,444.
3. Between 1997 and 2005, the divorce rate fell approximately 5 per cent.
4. There are approximately 500,000.00 married couples on Long Island, according to 2006 US Census Bureau figures.
5. Nationally, the median age for marriage is 27.5 years for men and 25.5 year for women, according to 2006 US Census Bureau data.
What can we learn from this information? I suppose we can take from these figures that couples are marrying less frequently and later in life, and that there are fewer divorces as a percentage of marriages. Whether these trends are related to each other is a subject for another day.
