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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 716,513 people living in Pennsylvania 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 Keystone 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 Pennsylvania 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 Pennsylvania with highest rates of divorcees.
The 10 Cities In Pennsylvania 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 PA.
What is the city in Pennsylvania with the highest divorce rate? That would be New Brighton, with 17.0% of people over 15 years of age being divorced, per the most recent census data.
What is the overall Pennsylvania divorce rate? According to the 2016-2020 Community Survey, the overall divorce rate in Pennsylvania is 7.000000000000001%, which compares to the US divorce rate of 10.9%.
Alrighty, on to how we calculated the places with the highest divorce rates in Pennsylvania.
For more Pennsylvania reading, check out:
- Worst Places To Live In Pennsylvania
- Cheapest Places To Live In Pennsylvania
- Best Places To Raise A Family In Pennsylvania
/10
Population: 5,731
Divorce Rate: 17.0%
Divorcees: 779
Median Income: $37,639
More on New Brighton: Cost Of Living | Crime Report
/10
Population: 19,128
Divorce Rate: 16.0%
Divorcees: 2,448
Median Income: $28,881
More on Mckeesport: Cost Of Living | Crime Report
/10
Population: 9,750
Divorce Rate: 16.0%
Divorcees: 1,248
Median Income: $41,591
More on Oil City: Cost Of Living | Crime Report
/10
Population: 8,157
Divorce Rate: 16.0%
Divorcees: 1,044
Median Income: $35,599
More on Lewi:
/10
Population: 8,815
Divorce Rate: 15.0%
Divorcees: 1,057
Median Income: $57,620
More on Canonsburg: Cost Of Living | Crime Report
/10
Population: 7,909
Divorce Rate: 15.0%
Divorcees: 949
Median Income: $57,014
More on Old Forge: Cost Of Living | Crime Report
/10
Population: 5,534
Divorce Rate: 15.0%
Divorcees: 664
Median Income: $35,264
More on Duquesne: Cost Of Living | Crime Report
/10
Population: 5,466
Divorce Rate: 15.0%
Divorcees: 655
Median Income: $39,690
More on Monaca: Cost Of Living | Crime Report
/10
Population: 5,161
Divorce Rate: 15.0%
Divorcees: 619
Median Income: $32,990
More on Turtle Creek: Cost Of Living | Crime Report
/10
Population: 13,404
Divorce Rate: 14.0%
Divorcees: 1,501
Median Income: $47,771
More on Washington: Cost Of Living
How We Determined The Places In Pennsylvania 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 186 places in Pennsylvania 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 Pennsylvania the place with the highest incidence of divorcees, New Brighton.
And if you're trying to avoid divorce, check out State College, the city with the lowest divorce rate in Pennsylvania.
Getting Some Closure In Pennsylvania After Untying The Know
Besides just coming up with what we thought would be a great new blog/book title, "Untying the Knot In Pennsylvania: Life After Divorce", we now have a sense of what places in the Keystone 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 Pennsylvania 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 Pennsylvania reading, check out:
- Worst Places To Live In Pennsylvania
- Cheapest Places To Live In Pennsylvania
- Best Places To Raise A Family In Pennsylvania