New divorce map shows varying rates around US

As many Orange County residents know, the national divorce rate hovers around 50 percent. That's been a pretty stable statistic in recent years, and it is indicative of how divorce has become part of our national culture. This doesn't mean that marriage is predisposed to end in divorce; but should issues in a marriage arise, people are more comfortable in today's society to call it quits than they were 50 or 60 years ago.

Now, that national divorce rate inevitably does not apply uniformly to every state, every city, or every marriage in the country. It is not as though your marriage has a 50 percent chance of ending in divorce. Many things factor into a couple filing for divorce. There are personal dynamics to consider; financial issues at play; past disagreements and problems; and myriad other things that could impact the likelihood of a married couple filing for divorce.

However, there are also some external factors that impact the likelihood of a couple filing for divorce. For example, the laws in one state may indirectly encourage a couple to get divorced, whereas if they lived in another state, they may be less inclined to get a divorce.

A new map shows the disparity of divorce rates in the United States, with California ranking right around "average." Some states have extremely high divorce rates relative to an "average" state, while an interesting fact was revealed by the map: the state of Florida is home to four of the 10 "most divorced" cities in the country.

Source: Huffington Post, "This Map Of U.S. Divorce Rates Shows Where Marriages Go To Die," Ashley Reich, Nov. 4, 2013