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 284,219 people living in New Jersey 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 Garden 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 New Jersey 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 New Jersey 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 NJ.
What is the city in New Jersey with the highest divorce rate? That would be Washington, with 10.0% of people over 15 years of age being divorced, per the most recent census data.
What is the overall New Jersey divorce rate? According to the 2014-2018 Community Survey, the overall divorce rate in New Jersey 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 New Jersey.
For more New Jersey reading, check out:
- 10 Best Places To Live In New Jersey
- 10 Best Places To Raise A Family In New Jersey
- These Are The 10 Best Places To Retire In New Jersey
How We Determined The Places In New Jersey 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 188 places in New Jersey 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 New Jersey the place with the highest incidence of divorcees, Washington.
And if you’re trying to avoid divorce, check out Englewood Cliffs, the city with the lowest divorce rate in New Jersey.
Now on to a deeper look at the top ten.
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Washington is a borough in Warren County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the borough’s population was 6,461, reflecting a decline of 251 from the 6,712 counted in the 2000 Census, which had in turn increased by 238 from the 6,474 counted in the 1990 Census. The borough is located in the eastern most region of the Lehigh Valley.
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Population: 12,237
Divorce Rate: 9.0%
Divorcees: 881
Median Income: $66,040
More on Eato: Data
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Caldwell is a borough located in northwestern Essex County, New Jersey, about 16 miles outside of New York City. As of the 2010 United States Census, the borough’s population was 7,822, reflecting an increase of 238 from the 7,584 counted in the 2000 Census, which had in turn increased by 35 from the 7,549 counted in the 1990 Census.
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Newton, officially the Town of Newton, is an incorporated municipality located in Sussex County, New Jersey, United States. It is situated approximately 60 miles by road northwest of New York City. It is one of fifteen municipalities in the state organized as a town, and the municipal government operates under a council-manager structure provided by the Faulkner Act, or Optional Municipal Charter Law. As the location of the county’s administrative offices and court system, Newton is the county seat of Sussex County.
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Keansburg is a borough in Monmouth County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the borough’s population was 10,105, which represented a decline of 627 from the 10,732 counted in the 2000 Census, which had in turn declined by 337 from the 11,069 counted in the 1990 Census.
Getting Some Closure In New Jersey After Untying The Know
Besides just coming up with what we thought would be a great new blog/book title, “Untying the Knot In New Jersey: Life After Divorce”, we now have a sense of what places in the Garden 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 New Jersey 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 New Jersey reading, check out:
