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 615,431 people living in Illinois over fifteen years of age who are divorced. Or compare that to the 28,339,199 dAmericans who are already divorced in 2020.
A lot of people make the decision to run away – or simply split up – across the Prairie 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 Illinois 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 Illinois with highest rates of divorcees.
The 10 Cities In Illinois With The Highest Divorce Rates
Let’s quickly recap before we dive into the methodology and a closer look at the top ten places in IL.
What is the city in Illinois with the highest divorce rate? That would be West Frankfort, with 17.0% of people over 15 years of age being divorced, per the most recent census data.
What is the overall Illinois divorce rate? According to the 2014-2018 Community Survey, the overall divorce rate in Illinois is 6.0%, which compares to the US divorce rate of 10.9%.
Alrighty, on to how we calculated the places with the highest divorce rates in Illinois.
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How We Determined The Places In Illinois 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 2014-2018 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 335 places in Illinois 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 Illinois the place with the highest incidence of divorcees, West Frankfort.
And if you’re trying to avoid divorce, check out Hawthorn Woods, the city with the lowest divorce rate in Illinois.
Now on to a deeper look at the top ten.
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West Frankfort is a city in Franklin County, Illinois, United States. The population was 8,182 at the 2010 census. The city is part of the Metro Lakeland area.
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Mattoon is a city in Coles County, Illinois, United States. The population was 18,555 as of the 2010 census.
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Population: 13,789
Divorce Rate: 15.0%
Divorcees: 1,654
Median Income: $41,940
More on Canton: Data
Canton is the largest city in Fulton County, Illinois, United States. The population was 14,704 at the 2010 census, down from 15,288 as of the 2000 census. The Canton Micropolitan Statistical Area covers all of Fulton County; it is in turn part of the wider Peoria-Canton, IL Combined Statistical Area.
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Population: 6,099
Divorce Rate: 15.0%
Divorcees: 731
Median Income: $45,274
More on East Alton: Data
East Alton is a village in Madison County, Illinois, United States. The population was 6,301 at the 2010 census.
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Litchfield is a city in Montgomery County, Illinois, United States. The population was 6,939 at the 2010 census, and 6,588 in 2009 and 7,012 in 2015. It is located in south central Illinois, south of Springfield and northeast of Metro-East.
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Population: 5,910
Divorce Rate: 14.0%
Divorcees: 661
Median Income: $44,037
More on Peoria Heights: Data
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Centralia is a city in Clinton, Jefferson, Marion, and Washington counties in the U.S. state of Illinois. The population was 13,032 as of the 2010 census, down from 14,136 in 2000. The current mayor is Tom Ashby.
Getting Some Closure In Illinois After Untying The Know
Besides just coming up with what we thought would be a great new blog/book title, “Untying the Knot In Illinois: Life After Divorce”, we now have a sense of what places in the Prairie 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 Illinois 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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