The 10 Cities In Florida With The Highest Divorce Rates For 2023


The cities in Florida with the highest divorce rate are DeFuniak Springs and Starke for 2023 based on Saturday Night Science.

Cities with highest divorce rate in Florida research summary. We analyzed Florida’s most recent Census data to determine the divorce rate for each city in Florida based on the percentage of currently divorced residents. Here are the results of our analysis:

  • The city with the highest divorce rate in Florida is DeFuniak Springs based on the most recent Census data.

  • DeFuniak Springs is 12.0% Divorced.

  • The city with the lowest divorce rate in Florida is Sweetwater.

  • Sweetwater is 0.0% Divorced.

  • Florida is 3.0% Divorced.


Table Of Contents: Top Ten | Methodology | Summary | Table


There are some 512,154 people living in Florida over fifteen years of age who are divorced. You can compare that to the 28,339,199 Americans who are currently divorced in 2023.

Many people decide to run away – or split up – across the Sunshine State.

Isn’t the divorce rate in America close to 50%? Yes indeed. But we’re measuring something else; we are looking at counts and percentages of people over 15 years old who are currently divorced. That 50% statistic is for the percentage of people who have ever been divorced.

For today’s analysis, the focus will be on the number of currently divorced people.

So now that we have you biting your nails, rethinking your worldview, and pulling out your hair, let’s look at the places in Florida with the highest rates of divorcees.

The 10 Cities In Florida With The Highest Divorce Rates

  1. DeFuniak Springs
  2. Starke
  3. Belleview
  4. Arcadia
  5. Lake City
  6. Live Oak
  7. Orange Park
  8. Palatka
  9. Bartow
  10. Inverness

Let’s quickly recap before we dive into the Saturday Night Science behind the data.

What is the city in Florida with the highest divorce rate? That would be DeFuniak Springs, with 12.0% of people over 15 years of age being divorced, per the most recent census data.

What is the overall Florida divorce rate? According to the 2017-2021 Community Survey, the overall divorce rate in Florida is 3.0%, which compares to the US divorce rate of 10.9%.

Alrighty, on to how we calculated the places with the highest divorce rates in Florida.

For more Florida reading, check out:

The 10 Places With The Highest Divorce Rate In Florida For 2023

Defuniak Springs, FL

Source: Wikipedia User Ebyabe | GFDL
Overall SnackAbility

3
/10

Population: 5,875
Divorce Rate: 12.0%
Divorcees: 564
Median Income: $53,984
More on Defuniak Springs: Data | Crime | Cost Of Living | Real Estate

Starke, FL

Source: Wikipedia User Michael Rivera | CC BY-SA 4.0
Overall SnackAbility

2
/10

Population: 5,669
Divorce Rate: 11.0%
Divorcees: 498
Median Income: $43,339
More on Starke: Data | Crime | Cost Of Living | Real Estate

Belleview, FL

Source: Wikipedia User Ebyabe | GFDL
Overall SnackAbility

3
/10

Population: 5,314
Divorce Rate: 9.0%
Divorcees: 382
Median Income: $41,188
More on Belleview: Data | Crime | Cost Of Living | Real Estate

Arcadia, FL

Source: Wikipedia User Ebyabe | GFDL
Overall SnackAbility

5
/10

Population: 7,460
Divorce Rate: 9.0%
Divorcees: 537
Median Income: $27,869
More on Arcadia: Data | Crime | Cost Of Living | Real Estate

Lake City, FL

Source: Wikipedia User Ebyabe | GFDL
Overall SnackAbility

3
/10

Population: 12,325
Divorce Rate: 9.0%
Divorcees: 887
Median Income: $43,396
More on Lake City: Data | Crime | Cost Of Living | Real Estate

Live Oak, FL

Source: Wikipedia User Ebyabe | GFDL
Overall SnackAbility

5
/10

Population: 6,771
Divorce Rate: 9.0%
Divorcees: 487
Median Income: $45,417
More on Live Oak: Data | Crime | Cost Of Living | Real Estate

Overall SnackAbility

8
/10

Population: 8,682
Divorce Rate: 8.0%
Divorcees: 555
Median Income: $70,929
More on Orange Park: Data | Crime | Cost Of Living | Real Estate

Palatka, FL

Source: Wikipedia User Ebyabe | CC BY-SA 3.0
Overall SnackAbility

1
/10

Population: 10,399
Divorce Rate: 8.0%
Divorcees: 665
Median Income: $28,082
More on Palatka: Data | Crime | Cost Of Living | Real Estate

Bartow, FL

Source: Wikipedia User Ebyabe | CC BY-SA 2.5
Overall SnackAbility

6
/10

Population: 18,880
Divorce Rate: 8.0%
Divorcees: 1,208
Median Income: $53,593
More on Bartow: Data | Crime | Cost Of Living | Real Estate

Inverness, FL

Source: Wikipedia User Ebyabe | GFDL
Overall SnackAbility

5
/10

Population: 7,423
Divorce Rate: 8.0%
Divorcees: 475
Median Income: $39,532
More on Inverness: Data | Cost Of Living | Real Estate

How We Determined The Places In Florida That Get Un-Hitched The Most

Since this is the 58th category of rankings we are compiling for the site, we had a pretty good idea of 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 2017-2021 American Community Survey table S1201 — Marital Status.

Pretty straightforward on that front — we just had to extract the following column of data:

  • Population 15 Years and Over -> Divorced

There are some interesting/fun/sad data 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 221 places in Florida with a population of over 5,000.

We ranked each place by the percentage of divorcees over 15 years of age from highest to lowest. We crowned the divorce capital of Florida the place with the highest incidence of divorcees, DeFuniak Springs.

And if you’re trying to avoid divorce, check out Sweetwater, the city with the lowest divorce rate in Florida.

We updated this article for 2023 and this is our fifth time ranking the cities in Florida with the highest divorce rates.

Getting Some Closure In Florida After Untying The Know

Besides just coming up with what we thought would be a great new blog/book title, “Untying the Knot In Florida: Life After Divorce,” we now have a sense of what places in the Sunshine 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 Florida could be because of the age, education, and income distribution, as all of those things impact the rate of divorce.

And that’s probably for the best. Getting out of a toxic relationship is much better than staying in it.

Just make sure you have your running shoes ready to go.

For more Florida reading, check out:

Detailed List Of The Cities With The Highest Divorce Rates In Florida

Rank City Divorce Rate
1 Defuniak Springs, FL 12.0%
2 Starke, FL 11.0%
3 Belleview, FL 9.0%
4 Arcadia, FL 9.0%
5 Lake City, FL 9.0%
6 Live Oak, FL 9.0%
7 Orange Park, FL 8.0%
8 Palatka, FL 8.0%
9 Bartow, FL 8.0%
10 Inverness, FL 8.0%
11 Holly Hill, FL 8.0%
12 Marianna, FL 8.0%
13 Newberry, FL 7.0%
14 Ocala, FL 7.0%
15 Dade City, FL 7.0%
16 Gulf Breeze, FL 7.0%
17 Quincy, FL 7.0%
18 Alachua, FL 7.0%
19 Avon Park, FL 6.0%
20 Auburndale, FL 6.0%
21 Pahokee, FL 6.0%
22 Pensacola, FL 6.0%
23 Perry, FL 6.0%
24 Green Cove Springs, FL 6.0%
25 Plant City, FL 6.0%
26 Fort Pierce, FL 5.0%
27 Winter Haven, FL 5.0%
28 Fort Meade, FL 5.0%
29 Jacksonville, FL 5.0%
30 Lake Mary, FL 5.0%
31 Leesburg, FL 5.0%
32 Brooksville, FL 5.0%
33 Daytona Beach, FL 5.0%
34 Surfside, FL 5.0%
35 Macclenny, FL 5.0%
36 Riviera Beach, FL 5.0%
37 Panama City, FL 5.0%
38 Springfield, FL 5.0%
39 Opa-Locka, FL 5.0%
40 South Bay, FL 5.0%
41 Okeechobee, FL 5.0%
42 Tampa, FL 4.0%
43 High Springs, FL 4.0%
44 South Pasadena, FL 4.0%
45 Miami Gardens, FL 4.0%
46 Wildwood, FL 4.0%
47 Palmetto, FL 4.0%
48 Jacksonville Beach, FL 4.0%
49 Mascotte, FL 4.0%
50 Kenneth City, FL 4.0%
51 Key West, FL 4.0%
52 Lake Alfred, FL 4.0%
53 Stuart, FL 4.0%
54 Lake Wales, FL 4.0%
55 Lakeland, FL 4.0%
56 Lauderhill, FL 4.0%
57 St. Petersburg, FL 4.0%
58 Sebring, FL 4.0%
59 Pinellas Park, FL 4.0%
60 Maitland, FL 4.0%
61 Temple Terrace, FL 4.0%
62 Tallahassee, FL 4.0%
63 Zephyrhills, FL 4.0%
64 Fruitland Park, FL 4.0%
65 Gainesville, FL 4.0%
66 Cocoa, FL 4.0%
67 Clewiston, FL 4.0%
68 Edgewater, FL 4.0%
69 Fernandina Beach, FL 4.0%
70 Callaway, FL 4.0%
71 Belle Glade, FL 4.0%
72 Deland, FL 4.0%
73 Tavares, FL 3.0%
74 Milton, FL 3.0%
75 Mount Dora, FL 3.0%
76 Neptune Beach, FL 3.0%
77 Oakland Park, FL 3.0%
78 Dania Beach, FL 3.0%
79 Crestview, FL 3.0%
80 Orange City, FL 3.0%
81 Winter Park, FL 3.0%
82 Ormond Beach, FL 3.0%
83 Panama City Beach, FL 3.0%
84 Altamonte Springs, FL 3.0%
85 Pembroke Park, FL 3.0%
86 West Park, FL 3.0%
87 Atlantic Beach, FL 3.0%
88 West Melbourne, FL 3.0%
89 Plantation, FL 3.0%
90 Rockledge, FL 3.0%
91 Vero Beach, FL 3.0%
92 Winter Springs, FL 3.0%
93 Safety Harbor, FL 3.0%
94 Sanford, FL 3.0%
95 Sarasota, FL 3.0%
96 Titusville, FL 3.0%
97 South Daytona, FL 3.0%
98 South Miami, FL 3.0%
99 Bradenton, FL 3.0%
100 St. Augustine, FL 3.0%