Does New York Really Have the Fewest Divorces in America?

While “Til death do us part” rings true for many, for others, the phrase is only a fairytale – except maybe for New Yorkers.

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While it might seem like many New Yorkers we know are getting divorced and moving on to their next “Til death do us part,” that might not actually be the case.

According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)​​, the unadjusted divorce rate in New York State was 2.3 divorces per 1,000 people in 2019. That means that in 2019, around 23 people per every 10,000 in the state got divorced. The national average is 2.9 divorces per 1,000 people so the divorce rate in New York is truly lower than the national average

While New York may have a lower divorce rate than some other states, there’s no truth to New York having the lowest rate in the United States. According to data from the World Population Review, several other states, including Hawaii, Minnesota, and North Dakota, have lower divorce rates than New York.

The good news though is that the divorce rate isn’t just going down in New York, it’s gone down nationwide over the past decade, too. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the national divorce rate declined from 9.2 per 1,000 population in 2000 to 7.6 per 1,000 population in 2019.

So no, New York does not have the fewest divorces in America, but the state does have a lower divorce rate than the national average.

States with higher percentages of divorces include Nevada, Oklahoma, Wyoming, Alabama, and Arkansas. The state with the lowest percentage of divorces in the United States is Massachusetts.