When you look at marriage and divorce statistics, you’ll find that getting married at a younger age means that your odds of divorce are higher. For instance, those who get married in their teens have the highest divorce rate. It goes down by about 11% every year after that.
This doesn’t happen forever. The lowest divorce rate is when people get married around age 32. After that, divorce rates start climbing again, this time by 5% annually. Why is it that relatively young marriages have such a higher divorce rate? Below are a few potential reasons:
Financial instability
It can be difficult for young couples to make ends meet. People who are in their teens may still be going to college. It’s much more difficult to support a family or pay the bills, which puts a lot of financial pressure on the marriage.
Growing apart
Another major issue that these couples face is simply that they still have a lot of growing and developing to do. Brain development itself isn’t complete until around age 26, for example. In some cases, couples who get married too young will grow up and find that they have grown apart – and they want to get divorced.
Military careers
In many cases, couples who get married very young do so because one person is joining the military. It has been found that military members have a higher divorce rate than you will find among the civilian population. So these marriages are going to increase the overall divorce rate for the age group as a whole.
Divorce can be complex at any age. Couples who are going through this process must be aware of the legal steps they can take.