Despite what the relationships on Jersey-based reality TV shows look like to viewers, New Jersey has the lowest divorce rate in the U.S., according to a newly released survey. Only 9 percent of adults in the state are divorced.
So what makes residents of the Garden State more committed than the rest of us? The New York Times reports:
“Marriages are more likely to last for longer periods of time when people marry at an older age, have a higher education and earn more, and New Jersey scores high on these three criteria,” said Naomi Cahn, a professor at George Washington University Law School and an author of Red Families v. Blue Families.
“New Jerseyans are more likely than residents of most states to delay marriage until after they complete college and graduate school,” she said. “There are fewer divorces in New Jersey because there are fewer risk factors.”
In the past, we’ve reported that the South, which tends to have residents who are less educated and marry younger, has a higher divorce rate than other parts of the country. However, that might not be the whole story where New Jersey’s low rate of splits is concerned, the story says:
Other experts speculated that New Jersey’s low share of divorced people results from a range of factors, from the relatively large foreign-born population (immigrants have lower odds of divorce than the native-born population) to costly alimony provisions.
True, divorce ain’t cheap. None of this means we’ll be looking to The Real Housewives of New Jersey‘s Teresa and Joe Giudice for marital advice anytime soon, but there’s something to be said for putting marriage off until you’re ready both financially and emotionally.
[NY Times]
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