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If you're married, the thought of divorce has probably popped into your mind at least once.
Come on, admit it.
And if you're not married, let me tell you that there's gonna be a point at 2 a.m. when you have a crying baby and haven't slept in two months that it's gonna run through your head to run.
Far.
Away.
But, don't just take my word for it, take the word of the some 313,163 people living in Alabama over fifteen years of age who are divorced. Or compare that to the 28,339,199 dAmericans who are already divorced in 2022.
A lot of people make the decision to run away - or simply split up - across the Heart of Dixie.
Isn't the divorce rate in America close to 50%? Yes indeed. But that's not quite what we're measuring; we are looking at counts and percentages of people over 15 years old who are currently divorced.
You typically calculate that 50% statistic as percent of marriages.
But we are just going to focus on the actual number of divorced people today -- what better way to measure marital misery than the straight count of people in Alabama it affects?
So now that we have you biting your nails, rethinking your world view, and pulling out your hair, let's take a look at the places in Alabama with highest rates of divorcees.
Let's quickly recap before we dive into the methodology and a closer look at the top ten places in AL.
What is the city in Alabama with the highest divorce rate? That would be Tarrant, with 16.0% of people over 15 years of age being divorced, per the most recent census data.
What is the overall Alabama divorce rate? According to the 2016-2020 Community Survey, the overall divorce rate in Alabama is 8.0%, which compares to the US divorce rate of 10.9%.
Alrighty, on to how we calculated the places with the highest divorce rates in Alabama.
For more Alabama reading, check out:
/10
Population: 6,216
Divorce Rate: 16.0%
Divorcees: 795
Median Income: $34,032
More on Tarrant: Cost Of Living | Crime Report
/10
Population: 8,925
Divorce Rate: 15.0%
Divorcees: 1,071
Median Income: $36,774
More on Sheffield: Cost Of Living | Crime Report
/10
Population: 5,210
Divorce Rate: 15.0%
Divorcees: 625
Median Income: $41,444
More on Brewton: Cost Of Living | Crime Report
/10
Population: 35,224
Divorce Rate: 14.0%
Divorcees: 3,945
Median Income: $34,062
More on Gadsden: Cost Of Living | Crime Report
/10
Population: 10,749
Divorce Rate: 14.0%
Divorcees: 1,203
Median Income: $41,439
More on Fairfield: Cost Of Living | Crime Report
/10
Population: 8,719
Divorce Rate: 14.0%
Divorcees: 976
Median Income: $43,675
More on Clanton: Cost Of Living
/10
Population: 5,885
Divorce Rate: 14.0%
Divorcees: 659
Median Income: $42,744
More on Attalla: Cost Of Living
/10
Population: 14,379
Divorce Rate: 14.0%
Divorcees: 1,610
Median Income: $54,620
More on Muscle Shoals: Cost Of Living | Crime Report
/10
Population: 26,063
Divorce Rate: 13.0%
Divorcees: 2,710
Median Income: $30,284
More on Bessemer: Cost Of Living
/10
Population: 8,719
Divorce Rate: 13.0%
Divorcees: 906
Median Income: $41,410
More on Andalusia: Cost Of Living | Crime Report
How We Determined The Places In Alabama That Get Un-Hitched The Most
Since that this is the 58th category of rankings we are compiling for the site, we had a pretty good idea where to find data on marriage and divorce in America the U.S. Census Bureau. Because who likes tracking misery more than the U.S. government?
Specifically, we looked at the 2016-2020 American Community Survey specifically table S1201 -- Marital Status.
Pretty straight forward on that front -- we just had to extract the following column of data:
- Population 15 Years and Over -> Divorced
There's some kinda interesting/fun/sad data in there like .1% of female Americans aged 15-19 are divorced, but 0% of males (That's probably a rounding issue, but still).
But the national data is for another day, today the analysis focuses on the 103 places in Alabama with a population of over 5,000.
We ranked each of these places by the percentage of divorcees over 15 years of age from highest to lowest. We crowned the divorce capital of Alabama the place with the highest incidence of divorcees, Tarrant.
And if you're trying to avoid divorce, check out Mountain Brook, the city with the lowest divorce rate in Alabama.
Getting Some Closure In Alabama After Untying The Know
Besides just coming up with what we thought would be a great new blog/book title, "Untying the Knot In Alabama: Life After Divorce", we now have a sense of what places in the Heart of Dixie don't pay much attention to the whole "'til death do we part" phrase.
Try to keep in mind that the reason cities rank where they do in Alabama could be because of the age, education, and income distribution, as all of those things impact the rate of divorce.
And, in all honestly, that's probably for the best. It's much better to get out of a toxic relationship than stay it.
Just make sure you have your running shoes ready to go.
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