What’s With Alabama’s High Divorce Rate?

Divorce messes with your perception of yourself and others. This is partially because it makes you a magnet for other people’s unsolicited opinions and advice. If you are the only person in your extended family group to divorce, you might feel like divorce is something that has only ever happened to you, and this is because you are exceptionally unlucky or because you are a failure at interpersonal relationships. On the other hand, if the marriages of all your sorority sisters broke up, you might think of divorce as a rite of passage, like sorority rush, bachelorette parties, destination weddings in Nashville, baby gender reveal parties, and professional photo shoots for Christmas cards with your new baby. In other words, depending on your experience, the statistics about divorce cases in Alabama might surprise you. Alabama ranks in the top ten states for highest divorce rates, and it has done so for decades. If you are at your wits’ end with your marriage, then chances are that many of your neighbors are at their wits’ end with their marriages, too. The best you can do is get a head start before everybody else storms the divorce court on the first business Monday in January. There is no time like the present to contact a Birmingham divorce lawyer.

Marriage and Divorce in the Bible Belt

In Alabama, the divorce rate is 3 divorce filings per 1,000 residents. This means that Alabama has the sixth highest divorce rate out of every state. The outlier is Nevada, which is famous for its lenient marriage and divorce laws; some of its divorce cases are out-of-state residents who traveled to Nevada for a hasty marriage and then quickly got their stunt marriages annulled. The other states that have higher divorce rates than Alabama, namely Idaho, Wyoming, Oklahoma, Alaska, and Utah, all have important cultural characteristics in common with Alabama. Specifically, people tend to be more religious and socially conservative than they are on the two coasts. Alabama and the other states with high divorce rates tend to value marriage and family ties more than they value individual independence. You might think that this would manifest itself in a low divorce rate. Doesn’t placing importance on marriage mean a stigma on divorce? It might, but there is a bigger stigma against remaining unmarried. Therefore, some couples marry simply because they feel social pressure to do so, whereas, if they lived elsewhere, they would have remained single. Some couples who are on the fence about whether they want to be together forever decide to give marriage a try, whereas elsewhere they might have cohabited without making their marriage official.

Of course, divorce rates have declined in Alabama, as they have done nationwide. A generation ago, in 1990, the divorce rate in Alabama was 6.1 divorce cases per 1,000 residents, more than twice as high as it is now.

Contact Peeples Law About Putting Your Divorce in Perspective

A Birmingham family law attorney can help you see the big picture about your divorce.  Contact Peeples Law in Birmingham, Alabama today to schedule a consultation.

Source:

montgomeryadvertiser.com/story/news/2025/11/20/what-is-the-divorce-rate-in-al-here-are-the-cdcs-numbers/87374449007/