Surge in midlife divorce is plunging more Americans into poverty in old age
New York — Divorce in the US surged in the 1970s and 1980s as baby boomers hit adulthood. Now as they are retiring more of them are divorcing. This is plunging more couples into poverty in old age. And women tend to end up worse off than men. While divorce rates for younger Americans have fallen, marriage failure among people over 50 doubled from 1990 to 2010, according to Bowling Green State University’s National Centre for Family & Marriage Research. So the overall risk of divorce in the US has remained constant — about half of all marriages fail. This helps explain why one in five Americans over 65 still works — twice as many in the early 1980s and the highest rate since the creation of Medicare. Unlike divorces earlier in life, later breakups have a huge impact on individual finances, often forcing people to delay retirement. Research suggests this increased monetary stress plays a big part in pushing older women back into the workforce. According to a study by economists Claudi...
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.
Subscribe now to unlock this article.
Support BusinessLIVE’s award-winning journalism for R129 per month (digital access only).
There’s never been a more important time to support independent journalism in SA. Our subscription packages now offer an ad-free experience for readers.
Cancel anytime.
Questions? Email helpdesk@businesslive.co.za or call 0860 52 52 00. Got a subscription voucher? Redeem it now.