You’ve been married for five years and you’ve been thinking about asking for a divorce. You haven’t done it yet, but the idea sounds attractive at times. No one really talks about this in advance, so you have no idea how many of your friends may be in the same situation. Are you the outlier? Or does everyone think about getting divorced at some point in a marriage?
You are actually right in the age ground with the highest percentage of people who consider divorce. Roughly one couple out of every four thinks about splitting up within the first 15 years that they are together. This doesn’t mean that they think about it the entire time, of course, but just that the study that found the stats discovered people in these early years of marriage thought about divorce at a consistent rate.
Once people get beyond the 15-year mark, their thoughts of divorce tend to drop, at least in terms of percentage, eventually halving to roughly one out of every eight couples. All that this really suggests is that many of the couples who would have gotten divorced already did so. Those who make it to 16 years and beyond are more often — though certainly not always — couples who are never going to split up.
In short, you’re not alone in considering a divorce. It’s a thing many people mull over. If you decide that it is time to go forward with a divorce, make sure you know exactly what legal steps you and your spouse will need to take for the best outcome.
