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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 1,259,072 people living in California 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 Golden State.
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 California 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 California with highest rates of divorcees.
The 10 Cities In California With The Highest Divorce Rates
- Fort Bragg (Photos)
- Red Bluff (Photos)
- Crescent City (Photos)
- Grass Valley (Photos)
- Clearlake (Photos)
- Yreka (Photos)
- Taft (Photos)
- Fortuna (Photos)
- Shasta Lake
- Anderson (Photos)
Let's quickly recap before we dive into the methodology and a closer look at the top ten places in CA.
What is the city in California with the highest divorce rate? That would be Fort Bragg, with 15.0% of people over 15 years of age being divorced, per the most recent census data.
What is the overall California divorce rate? According to the 2016-2020 Community Survey, the overall divorce rate in California is 4.0%, which compares to the US divorce rate of 10.9%.
Alrighty, on to how we calculated the places with the highest divorce rates in California.
For more California reading, check out:
- Most Dangerous Cities In California
- Worst Places To Live In California
- Cheapest Places To Live In California
/10
Population: 7,279
Divorce Rate: 15.0%
Divorcees: 873
Median Income: $41,917
More on Fort Bragg: Cost Of Living | Crime Report
/10
Population: 14,091
Divorce Rate: 13.0%
Divorcees: 1,465
Median Income: $37,326
More on Red Bluff: Cost Of Living | Crime Report
/10
Population: 6,690
Divorce Rate: 12.0%
Divorcees: 642
Median Income: $33,347
More on Crescent City: Cost Of Living | Crime Report
/10
Population: 12,817
Divorce Rate: 11.0%
Divorcees: 1,127
Median Income: $42,477
More on Grass Valley: Cost Of Living | Crime Report
/10
Population: 15,329
Divorce Rate: 11.0%
Divorcees: 1,348
Median Income: $36,339
More on Clearlake: Cost Of Living | Crime Report
/10
Population: 7,589
Divorce Rate: 11.0%
Divorcees: 667
Median Income: $41,276
More on Yreka: Cost Of Living | Crime Report
/10
Population: 9,189
Divorce Rate: 11.0%
Divorcees: 808
Median Income: $46,980
More on Taft: Cost Of Living | Crime Report
/10
Population: 12,135
Divorce Rate: 11.0%
Divorcees: 1,067
Median Income: $46,025
More on Fortuna: Cost Of Living | Crime Report
/10
Population: 10,235
Divorce Rate: 11.0%
Divorcees: 900
Median Income: $48,257
More on Shasta Lake: Cost Of Living
/10
Population: 10,479
Divorce Rate: 11.0%
Divorcees: 922
Median Income: $41,069
More on Anderson: Cost Of Living | Crime Report
How We Determined The Places In California 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 427 places in California 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 California the place with the highest incidence of divorcees, Fort Bragg.
And if you're trying to avoid divorce, check out King City, the city with the lowest divorce rate in California.
Getting Some Closure In California After Untying The Know
Besides just coming up with what we thought would be a great new blog/book title, "Untying the Knot In California: Life After Divorce", we now have a sense of what places in the Golden State 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 California 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.
For more California reading, check out:
- Most Dangerous Cities In California
- Worst Places To Live In California
- Cheapest Places To Live In California
