Unless I'm reading this wrong

[Night201]

Data from the National Center for Health Statistics show that the U.S. divorce rate was 2.2 per 1,000 Americans in 1960; it rose steadily to 5.3 per 1,000 in 1981, but it has declined slowly since then, to 4 per 1,000 in 2001.

About 3/4 way down

 

[mugs]

Is the issue that you don't believe that fits with the 50% divorce rate you're used to hearing? Keep in mind that those rates [in the msnbc article] are for individual years. Marriages span multiple years. 50% of marriages don't fail every single year, they fail over the course of the marriage. Also consider that many Americans are not married. It's unclear whether they are referring to the number of divorces per 1000 americans, or the number of Americans who get divorced per 100 Americans (the latter would be double the former).

If that's not your issue with the numbers, you're going to have to clarify. They do still seem low to me, but then I don't know everything.

 

[Night201]

Interesting. Yes, I was thinking they ment 5.3 out of 10 or something (about 50% devorce rate), but those numbers would change if it was meant to be like how you said it might be. They should be clearer,