Many couples move to different cities after marriage, whether for more affordable housing, better job prospects, or a suitable environment for starting a family. What are the chances that moving to a new city will contribute to the success of your marriage?
We looked into the marital rates of the 20 most populated cities in the United States to see which ones have the lowest and highest divorce rates. With the help of reliable information sources, we analyzed which cities have the highest rate of marriage success.
Does the environment play a role in the likelihood of a marriage ending in divorce? Not exactly, but the information we will present might interest you to look into what the cities with the lowest divorce rates have that make marriages in their areas last longer.
Without further ado, here is the list of the 20 most populated cities in the United States and where they stand in different key dimensions.
Population | City | Marriage Rate | Divorce Rate |
---|---|---|---|
902,073 | Columbus | 10.86% | 3.52% |
1,343,565 | Dallas | 18.54% | 5.38% |
1,021,786 | San Jose | 32.98% | 5.68% |
3,979,537 | Los Angeles | 29.24% | 6.16% |
885,707 | Charlotte | 24.27% | 6.22% |
8,336,817 | New York | 33.43% | 6.48% |
913,656 | Fort Worth | 28.66% | 6.70% |
881,549 | San Francisco | 34.20% | 7.04% |
705,749 | Washington | 24.64% | 7.19% |
1,423,852 | San Diego | 32.18% | 7.25% |
1,584,064 | Philadelphia | 25.28% | 7.39% |
2,693,959 | Chicago | 33.48% | 7.66% |
2,316,797 | Houston | 36.47% | 7.68% |
1,680,988 | Phoenix | 27.08% | 8.68% |
870,340 | Indianapolis | 27.90% | 8.80% |
753,655 | Seattle | 35.43% | 8.83% |
1,547,250 | San Antonio | 30.82% | 9.15% |
979,263 | Austin | 40.00% | 9.62% |
727,211 | Denver | 34.32% | 11.08% |
911,528 | Jacksonville | 35.89% | 11.93% |
The correlation between divorce rate and Happiness Index (as determined by a WalletHub study) is only -0.06. This shows that there is an extremely minor correlation between the overall happiness of a city and the rate of divorce.
City | Divorce Rate | Happiest Cities in America (WalletHub) |
---|---|---|
New York | 6.48% | 50.91 |
Los Angeles | 6.16% | 53.99 |
Chicago | 7.66% | 55.65 |
Houston | 7.68% | 50.83 |
Phoenix | 8.68% | 50.13 |
Philadelphia | 7.39% | 45.8 |
San Antonio | 9.15% | 48.61 |
San Diego | 7.25% | 64.17 |
Dallas | 5.38% | 53.3 |
San Jose | 5.68% | 69.47 |
Austin | 9.62% | 64.13 |
Fort Worth | 6.70% | 55.76 |
Jacksonville | 11.93% | 52.41 |
Columbus | 3.52% | 52.48 |
Charlotte | 6.22% | 57.79 |
San Francisco | 7.04% | 67.11 |
Indianapolis | 8.80% | 49.14 |
Seattle | 8.83% | 64.74 |
Denver | 11.08% | 58.32 |
Washington | 7.19% | 59.59 |
We looked at the number of relationship therapists for each city to see if the number of relationship therapists has any impact on the rate of divorce. Interestingly enough, the correlation between these 2 factors is -0.07, meaning there is only an extremely minor correlation between the number of relationship therapists and the rate of divorce.
City | Divorce Rate | Number of Family/Marriage Therapists per 10,000 Married & Divorced Capita |
---|---|---|
New York | 6.48% | 34 |
Los Angeles | 6.16% | 11 |
Chicago | 7.66% | 15 |
Houston | 7.68% | 12 |
Phoenix | 8.68% | 4 |
Philadelphia | 7.39% | 32 |
San Antonio | 9.15% | 6 |
San Diego | 7.25% | 24 |
Dallas | 5.38% | 34 |
San Jose | 5.68% | 4 |
Austin | 9.62% | 14 |
Fort Worth | 6.70% | 9 |
Jacksonville | 11.93% | 2 |
Columbus | 3.52% | 18 |
Charlotte | 6.22% | 42 |
San Francisco | 7.04% | 16 |
Indianapolis | 8.80% | 11 |
Seattle | 8.83% | 55 |
Denver | 11.08% | 47 |
Washington | 7.19% | 127 |
8.93%
population of divorced couples across the United States
29M
approximate number of divorced couples
In order to better understand which cities have the highest chances of a happier ending, our data scientists determined the most populated cities in the United States according to US Census Bureau then made a comparison among these cities across four important dimensions:
The marital population of each city was pulled using the US Census ACS 1-Year Estimates PUMS (Public Use Microdata Sample).
For the marriage, & divorce rate, the number of each city’s marriages & divorces was divided by each city’s total population. These figures were then converted into percentages.
The happiness score came from a WalletHub analysis which determined how happy the people are in each major city. Their analysis involves looking into 30+ metrics and uses a 100-point system for ranking. This study was based on the following factors.
Our data scientists also compared the prominence of marriage/family therapists to the relationship success of the cities. This was accomplished by collecting all the zip codes belonging to those 20 cities and pulling the number of therapists with the help of AAMFT’s (American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy) Therapist Locator.
The sum of married & divorced cases per city was then compared with the number of therapists per city’s 10,000 population.
These key factors and data sources were inspired by the following resources, which provided great insights on how to best gather data to uncover relationship success.