States bear a huge financial burdens dealing with the fallout from divorce in the form of welfare, corrections, and other social programs. Fewer than one-third of parental divorces occur because of high conflict, abusive situations. Research shows that divorce often impoverishes women and children and about one-fifth of women who apply for welfare benefits for the first time do so because of divorce or separation, and about one in four of those women are still welfare dependent five years later.

1. Three out of five divorces involve children.
2. Since 1970, one million children per year are victims of Divorce
3. Children of divorce are twice as likely to drop out of school
4. One and one-half times as likely to be out of work and out of school
5. Seven times more likely to be in poverty
6. Three times more likely to have a child out of wedlock.
- The California Family Council

Divorce in America: By the numbers In 1997, there were a total of 1,163,000 divorces granted in the United States. That's 4.3 per one thousand of the population. There are currently 19,400,000 divorced adults (1998). The median age at divorce is 35.6 for Males and 33.2 for females. The median duration of a marriage is 7.2 years. There are an estimated 1,075,000 children involved in divorce or 16.8 children per one thousand under the age of eighteen who are involved in their parents' divorce.

80% of divorced men and 75% of women remarry whether or not they have children, and most do so within three years.

Five years later (after divorce) after most men and women have remarried, women's household incomes increased slightly more above pre-divorce levels than those of their ex-husbands.

2/3 to ¾ of divorces are initiated by women.

According to Dr. Peter Orli in Seven Myths of Divorce, women are generally more satisfied with their divorce settlements than men, and this satisfaction is stable over time.
Divorce Wizard

Recent statistics suggest that 50% of all marriages will end in divorce. In Southern California the divorce rate is purported to be even higher, somewhere in the neighborhood of 60-75%.

EXPENSE:
Mediation is much less expensive than litigation. An average divorce can easily cost as much as $30,000. A mediation can cost as little as $3000 including completion of all the legal paperwork. From Keeping the Humanity in Divorce by Deborah Vaupen.

Over 160,000 divorces are filed in California…60% are now done without lawyers according to Ed Sherman in How to do Your Own Divorce In California published by Nolo Press. Californians are saving over a half a billion dollars every year in unnecessary legal fees.

Fighting for custody in a Court can cost a lot - at least $15,000-$50,000 for each side.
Divorce Wizard

http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvss/divorce90_04.pdf

• Since 1950, there have been over 1.5 million marriages in Colorado and over 773,000 divorces.
• On an average day in Colorado, there are 96 marriages and 56 divorces.
• Colorado’s divorce rate of 4.3 per 1,000 population in 2005 (20,504 divorces) was a slight decrease from the 2004 divorce rate of 4.4. Colorado’s divorce rate reached a 34-year low in 2003 with 4.2 per 1,000.
- Source: Colorado Vital Statistics 2005, Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, Health Statistics Section, 2006

• There are some unique factors which may explain our high divorce rate: the majority of Coloradans are not natives, moving here from other states, and having little or no support structures; the populace is younger, recreationally oriented and not heavily invested in long-term relationships; Colorado has one of the highest cohabitation rates in our nation-research shows that most cohabitating relationships will lead to failed marriages; finally, Colorado has a large un-churched population- research shows that marriages with a distinct faith foundation have a higher rate of survival than those that do not. Woman's Divorce