America is divorcing less than it has in more than five decades, but not everyone is following the trend. A new study from Envision Family Law finds that adults aged 50 and older now account for 36% of all U.S. divorces, up from under 9% in 1990. The overall U.S. crude divorce rate fell to 2.4 per 1,000 people in 2024, the lowest in more than 50 years, and the refined rate stood at 14.2 divorces per 1,000 married women. The total number of divorces dropped about 30% in two decades, from 955,000 in 2002 to 673,989 in 2022. Against that backdrop, what is now known as “gray divorce” has become one of the biggest shifts in American family life.
The divorce rate among adults aged 50 and older was 10.3 per 1,000 married women in 2023, the latest year with age-specific data. That is slightly below the 2008 peak of 11, but it is almost triple the 1990 rate of 3.9. The long-term climb is even clearer. In 1970, the rate among adults over 50 was 3.69 per 1,000. It reached 4.87 by 1990, more than doubled to 10.05 by 2010, and remained high at 9.64 in 2019. Younger adults went the other way: between 1990 and 2015, the divorce rate for 25- to 39-year-olds fell from 3 to 2.4 per 1,000.
Adults aged 65 and older stand out as the only group whose divorce rate is still rising. Their rate more than tripled, from 0.18% in 1990 to 0.48% in 2010 and 0.56% in 2019, or 5.6 per 1,000. Among adults aged 50 to 64, the rate nearly doubled from 0.69% in 1990 to 1.31% in 2010 before easing slightly to 1.27% by 2019. The study links the trend to Baby Boomers, who came of age as no-fault divorce laws spread in the 1970s and who now make up a large share of the 65 and older population. Women initiate 69% of divorces overall, a pattern that holds for gray divorce as well.
At the state level, New Mexico (20.80%) and Nevada (20.67%) are the only states where more than 20% of adults aged 50 and older are divorced, well above the national average of 16.44%. Maine (18.95%), Oregon (18.89%), and Vermont (18.86%) follow. Lower living costs, rapid growth, and large retirement populations may help explain the top two. Florida ranks ninth, with an above-average rate and the second largest number of divorced adults over 50, at 1,746,285.
The lowest rates are in New Jersey (13.51%), Utah (14.28%), New York (14.62%), South Dakota (14.68%), and California (14.77%). California shows why rates matter more than raw totals. It has the most divorced adults over 50 in the country, at 2,013,514, yet one of the lowest rates because of its large population. The Northeast is split: Maine and Vermont rank in the top five, while New York and New Jersey sit near the bottom.
Looking only at adults aged 65 and older changes the ranking. Nevada leads at 20.71%, followed by New Mexico (19.12%) and Oregon (18.32%), with Alaska and Washington rounding out the top five. That places the Pacific Northwest among the country’s gray divorce hot spots for the oldest group of divorcing Americans.
Remarriage adds another layer. Among divorced adults over 50, 8.5% of men and 6.5% of women remarry, and those second marriages end in divorce at double the rate of first marriages.
“Gray divorce is now a norm, not a fringe trend,” says an Envision Family Law spokesperson. “It’s reshaped what U.S. divorce looks like, and confirms what we see every day. More long-term marriages are ending, and the people involved face a very specific set of challenges, with women consistently suffering the greatest financial consequences.”
