Ask any group of people how many marriages end in divorce, and you will almost unanimously hear people chime in, 50%. This is because of a statement by the Barna research group which was given back in 2008. Recent evidence by researcher Shaunti Feldhahn shows that this stat is not true.

The reality was that the 50% figure “wasn’t based on hard data; rather, came from projections of what researchers thought the divorce rate would become after states passed no-fault divorce laws.” You can read more about that here (article got questions: is the divorce rate among christians truly the same among non-Christians?)

Several studies have been done recently. Most find that the number is more like one third of marriages end in divorce. This is still not a great stat, but at least much better than the 50% that many of us have wrongly believed.

The next question becomes, how do Christian marriages match up? We have been told that Christian marriages fail as much as non-Christian marriages do. This is also not true.

Feldhahn actually worked with the Barna research group to reexamine the data. She found something interesting. There were two groups of Chrisitians that they had lumped together. Practicing christians and professing christians.

Practicing christians are those christians who practice their faith. They attend church, read God’s Word, pray together, and the like. They are ones who don’t just say they are Christians but put it into action.

Multiple studies show that those who are practicing Christians actually have anywhere from a 27% to 50% lower divorce rate than non-Christians. This means that the divorce rate among practicing Christians could be as low as 15%. A far cry from the 50% we have all thought was true. I would love to see that broken down even more by theological convictions and wouldn’t be surprised if some groups of believers could be as low as the single digits.

Why is answering this question important? First, it is important because if we think 50% is the real statistic, we will normalize divorce. Second, it is important to understand the real data so that we don’t think God’s ways really don’t work when they do. So, if you are a christian, is your marriage doomed to fail? Probably not. God’s ways are still the best.

For help on your marriage, you can read one of dozens of our articles here.

https://maddeningtheology.org/category/marriage

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