Difusing the Doomsday Divorce Stats

A commonly cited statistic is that “50% of marriages end in divorce.” If you Google it today, you’ll find that even AI assistants now recognize this as an exaggeration. The more accurate number is closer to 43%. Yet even that figure is skewed, since second and third marriages fail at higher rates, which inflates the overall average.

As a pastor, I’m always struck when I hear the claim that Christian marriages fail at the same rate as non-Christian marriages. While I’ve certainly seen Christian marriages end in divorce, in my experience they are the exception, not the rule.

Just today, I reflected on the last 21 funerals I’ve either led or attended where the person who passed away had been married. I decided to calculate the percentage of “lifetime marriages” represented in that sample.

Of the 21 marriages, 20 lasted until death parted them. That’s a 95% lifetime success rate. Some of these couples had been married 50, 60, even 70 years. I’ve had the privilege of sitting with many of them, listening to their stories, and noticing the way they related to one another. Again and again, the presence of Christ in their lives and the fruit of the Holy Spirit were unmistakable keys to marriages that go the distance. If you want your marriage to last, please consider keeping Christ at the center with your spouse. The odds are clearly in your favor.