My background
editMy friend and I were arguing about how many marriages survive the first 10 years in the U.S. "Less than 1 in 10" my friend was saying. Based on my experience, it didn't seem right. But there were multiple articles and videos out there to "prove" it, and it was generally worse than that at around 1 in 15 or 6.6% according to one site.[1][2] I did some more googling for something that looked more like a primary source. I found an article from the CDC, that gives the first 10 year survival rate as about 68% which seemed more reasonable.[3] My guess is someone somewhere accidentally moved the decimal (plus uncertainty on the second digit). Like much of the news these days,[citation needed] the information had just been repeated without much thought.
I like finding primary sources of information - peer reviewed journals, statistics tables, actual transcripts, etc. when I can.
References
edit- ^ Buzzfeedyellow, Bolddly (Apr 4, 2014). "Youtube - Will you get married?". youtube. BuzzFeed. Retrieved Jan 8, 2018.
Only 1 in 15 marriages in America survives after 10 years
- ^ "Marriage Statistics". Statistic Brain. Sep 1, 2016. Retrieved Jan 8, 2018.
Probability that a first marriage will survive 10 years, 6.6 % - 1 in 15
- ^ First Marriages in the United States: Data From the 2006-2010 National Survey of Family Growth (PDF) (Report). CDC. Mar 22, 2012. p. 7. Retrieved Jan 8, 2018.
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