Seniors Who Split: Rates of 'Gray Divorce' Have Tripled Since 1990

October 22, 2024
Dennis Thompson HealthDay Reporter

Baby Boom seniors are divorcing at rates triple that of a few decades ago, a new study has found.

“Gray divorce” among folks 65 and older increased to 15% in 2022 from 5% in 1990, according to research from the National Center for Family and Marriage Research at Bowling Green State University.

Increased life expectancy and the fragile nature of second, third or fourth marriages could play a factor in this trend, said researcher Susan Brown, a sociology professor at Bowling Green State University in Ohio.

“This cohort of individuals experienced the divorce revolution in the 1970s as young adults, and many eventually remarried,” Brown said. “We know that remarriages are more likely to end in divorce than first marriages, which could be one cause for the increase.”

However, divorce rates among middle-aged Gen X’ers 50 to 64 slightly declined in 2022, researchers noted.

This means that “gray divorce” is largely a phenomenon among the Baby Boomer generation, the researchers concluded.

Using U.S. Census Bureau data, Bowling Green researchers also found that an increasing number of seniors never married – a percentage that steadily rose from 5.2% in 1990 to 6.6% in 2022.

At the same time, widowhood has declined by more than 14% during the past three decades, thanks to increases in life expectancy.

“Traditionally, when we’ve studied older adults, we tend to confine our focus to thinking about marriage and widowhood,” Brown said in a Bowling Green news release. “These figures show that we really need to widen the lens and think more broadly about the shifting composition of older adults, who are increasingly divorced or never married.”

More information

The Institute for Family Studies has more about gray divorce.

SOURCE: Bowling Green State University, news release, Oct. 18, 2024

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