Military Divorce Statistics

The Department of Defense statistics has reported that in the recent past, the military divorce rate has steadily grown. During the fiscal year 2006 and 2007, it was 3.3 percent while in 2008 it became 3.4 percent.

Military Divorce Statistics in different services

Services	Overall Divorce Rate	Officer Divorce Rate	Enlisted Divorce Rate
Army	3.5	2.3	3.9
Air Force	3.5	1.6	4.1
Navy	3.0	1.5	4.1
Marine Corps	3.5	1.6	3.5

Military Divorce Statistics of the Sexes

Services	Male Divorce Rate			Female Divorce Rate
	2006	2007	2008	2006	2007	2008
Army	2.5	2.6	3.0	7.9	8.1	8.5
Air Force	2.6	2.9	2.9	6.2	6.5	6.5
Navy	2.9	2.8	2.5	6.9	6.5	6.3
Marine Corps	2.9	3.0	3.2	7.1	8.1	9.1

2005 witnesses a drop in statistics

In 2004, the military divorce rate spiked up. During this year, 3,325 Army officers opted for divorce and the number of enlisted members who got divorced was 7,152. The military personnel were offered new and beefed-up programs in 2005. The effect was remarkable and the divorce rate plummeted by 61 percent. In 2005, 1,292 Army officers and 7,075 enlisted members got divorce. If the officer corps were taken into consideration, 6 percent of married officers divorced in 2004 while in 2005, this figure was 2.3 percent.

Efforts to decrease divorce statistics

The U.S. military has introduced some programs with the intention of providing assistance to military families to bear the hardships of life. For example, there are weekend retreats for military couples and support groups for spouses of deployed personnel. Such programs are made available through mental health and family support counseling networks.

Some of the attempts made by the Army to decrease divorce statistics are as follows –

• The P.I.C.K. (Premarital Interpersonal Choices and Knowledge) a Partner Program to enable single soldiers to make astute decisions to select their lifemate
• The Stong Bonds Marriage Education Program is related primarily to issues that have an impact on Reserve and National Guard couples
• The Building Strong and Ready Families Program – the intention of this program is to enhance the communication skills amongst the married partners. This is a 2 day program which is reinforced by a weekend retreat
• The Military OneSource Program aims to maneuver soldiers and families to resources that would support them
• A family support group system offers emotional and practical support to spouses of deployed soldiers
• The Deployment Cycle Support Program, in which, the soldiers are made aware of how the family relations are affected by their absence and return and how the soldiers can adjust with the unavoidable changes

Some facts

• In case of active-duty Army officers and enlisted personnel, the divorce cases doubled from 5,658 to 10,477 from 2001 to 2004. Some officials have guesses that this increase might be due to the stress of deployment
• The possibility that the marriage of enlisted service members would end in a divorce is more than officers and one may guess this may be taking place because enlisted service members are younger
• As compared with men, women in each military service are two times more likely to opt for divorce. It has been proved after some research that the current programs in the military offer very less support for their family

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