America Counts: Stories Behind the Numbers

Love and Loss Among Older Adults

Marriage, divorce and widowhood are all significant events in the lives of anyone who has ever been married but they are especially prevalent among the older population.

Older adults have rich marital histories that reflect both partnership and loss over their lifetime, according to a new U.S. Census Bureau report entitled, “Number, Timing, and Duration of Marriages and Divorces: 2016.”

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The report uses estimates from the 2016 1-year American Community Survey (ACS), as well as the 2014 Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) Wave 1 and Social Security Administration Supplement files.

Since the 1990s, the national trend of divorce among adults 50 years or older has risen, often linked to the marital instability of the aging baby boomer generation.

Continue reading to learn more about:

• Marriage
• Divorce
• Widowhood
• Remarriage

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