The 10 Cities In Washington With The Highest Divorce Rates For 2022


We analyzed over 118 places in Washington to identify the ones that have the highest rates of divorce.

Editor’s Note: We updated this article for 2022. This is our third time ranking the cities in Washington with the highest divorce rates.

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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 300,498 people living in Washington 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 Evergreen 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 Washington 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 Washington with highest rates of divorcees.

The 10 Cities In Washington With The Highest Divorce Rates

  1. Chehalis (Photos)
  2. Hoquiam (Photos)
  3. Burlington (Photos)
  4. Sultan (Photos)
  5. Centralia (Photos)
  6. Selah (Photos)
  7. Prosser (Photos)
  8. Airway Heights
  9. Connell (Photos)
  10. Kelso (Photos)

Let's quickly recap before we dive into the methodology and a closer look at the top ten places in WA.

What is the city in Washington with the highest divorce rate? That would be Chehalis, with 11.0% of people over 15 years of age being divorced, per the most recent census data.

What is the overall Washington divorce rate? According to the 2016-2020 Community Survey, the overall divorce rate in Washington is 5.0%, which compares to the US divorce rate of 10.9%.

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

For more Washington reading, check out:

Chehalis, WA

Overall SnackAbility

5
/10

Population: 7,607
Divorce Rate: 11.0%
Divorcees: 669
Median Income: $45,195
More on Chehalis:  Cost Of Living | Crime Report

Hoquiam, WA

Overall SnackAbility

6
/10

Population: 8,570
Divorce Rate: 10.0%
Divorcees: 685
Median Income: $44,191
More on Hoquiam:  Cost Of Living | Crime Report

Burlington, WA

Overall SnackAbility

6
/10

Population: 9,085
Divorce Rate: 10.0%
Divorcees: 726
Median Income: $55,451
More on Burlington:  Cost Of Living | Crime Report

Sultan, WA

Overall SnackAbility

8.5
/10

Population: 5,330
Divorce Rate: 10.0%
Divorcees: 426
Median Income: $73,750
More on Sultan:  Cost Of Living | Crime Report

Centralia, WA

Overall SnackAbility

4
/10

Population: 17,473
Divorce Rate: 9.0%
Divorcees: 1,258
Median Income: $40,625
More on Centralia:  Cost Of Living | Crime Report

Selah, WA

Overall SnackAbility

8
/10

Population: 7,957
Divorce Rate: 9.0%
Divorcees: 572
Median Income: $58,854
More on Selah:  Cost Of Living | Crime Report

Prosser, WA

Source: Public domain
Overall SnackAbility

5
/10

Population: 6,288
Divorce Rate: 9.0%
Divorcees: 452
Median Income: $53,333
More on Prosser:  Cost Of Living | Crime Report

Overall SnackAbility

6
/10

Population: 8,885
Divorce Rate: 9.0%
Divorcees: 639
Median Income: $54,690
More on Airway Heights:  Cost Of Living | Crime Report

Connell, WA

Source: Public domain
Overall SnackAbility

6
/10

Population: 5,518
Divorce Rate: 8.0%
Divorcees: 353
Median Income: $71,831
More on Connell:  Cost Of Living | Crime Report

Kelso, WA

Overall SnackAbility

5
/10

Population: 12,237
Divorce Rate: 8.0%
Divorcees: 783
Median Income: $48,005
More on Kelso:  Cost Of Living | Crime Report

How We Determined The Places In Washington 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 121 places in Washington 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 Washington the place with the highest incidence of divorcees, Chehalis.

And if you're trying to avoid divorce, check out Mattawa, the city with the lowest divorce rate in Washington.

Getting Some Closure In Washington After Untying The Know

Besides just coming up with what we thought would be a great new blog/book title, "Untying the Knot In Washington: Life After Divorce", we now have a sense of what places in the Evergreen 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 Washington 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 Washington reading, check out:

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

Rank City Divorce Rate
1 Chehalis, WA 11.0%
2 Hoquiam, WA 10.0%
3 Burlington, WA 10.0%
4 Sultan, WA 10.0%
5 Centralia, WA 9.0%
6 Selah, WA 9.0%
7 Prosser, WA 9.0%
8 Airway Heights, WA 9.0%
9 Connell, WA 8.0%
10 Kelso, WA 8.0%
11 Snohomish, WA 8.0%
12 Sequim, WA 8.0%
13 Moses Lake, WA 8.0%
14 Sedro-Woolley, WA 8.0%
15 Wenatchee, WA 8.0%
16 Sumner, WA 8.0%
17 Longview, WA 7.0%
18 East Wenatchee, WA 7.0%
19 Normandy Park, WA 7.0%
20 Ocean Shores, WA 7.0%
21 Orting, WA 7.0%
22 Port Angeles, WA 7.0%
23 Aberdeen, WA 7.0%
24 Fircrest, WA 7.0%
25 Spokane, WA 7.0%
26 Port Townsend, WA 7.0%
27 Poulsbo, WA 6.0%
28 Puyallup, WA 6.0%
29 Walla Walla, WA 6.0%
30 Richland, WA 6.0%
31 Mountlake Terrace, WA 6.0%
32 Mount Vernon, WA 6.0%
33 Tumwater, WA 6.0%
34 Monroe, WA 6.0%
35 Yakima, WA 6.0%
36 Marysville, WA 6.0%
37 Spokane Valley, WA 6.0%
38 Lake Stevens, WA 6.0%
39 Stanwood, WA 6.0%
40 Milton, WA 6.0%
41 Everett, WA 6.0%
42 Fife, WA 6.0%
43 Arlington, WA 6.0%
44 Enumclaw, WA 6.0%
45 Ephrata, WA 6.0%
46 Covington, WA 5.0%
47 Clarkston, WA 5.0%
48 Mukilteo, WA 5.0%
49 Burien, WA 5.0%
50 Edmonds, WA 5.0%
51 Ellensburg, WA 5.0%
52 Brier, WA 5.0%
53 Bremerton, WA 5.0%
54 Olympia, WA 5.0%
55 Gig Harbor, WA 5.0%
56 Union Gap, WA 5.0%
57 West Richland, WA 5.0%
58 Kennewick, WA 5.0%
59 University Place, WA 5.0%
60 Lynnwood, WA 5.0%
61 Auburn, WA 5.0%
62 Des Moines, WA 5.0%
63 Shelton, WA 5.0%
64 Lynden, WA 5.0%
65 Tacoma, WA 5.0%
66 Steilacoom, WA 4.0%
67 Seatac, WA 4.0%
68 Shoreline, WA 4.0%
69 Anacortes, WA 4.0%
70 Port Orchard, WA 4.0%
71 Pacific, WA 4.0%
72 Othello, WA 4.0%
73 Bothell, WA 4.0%
74 Yelm, WA 4.0%
75 Lacey, WA 4.0%
76 Liberty Lake, WA 4.0%
77 North Bend, WA 4.0%
78 Maple Valley, WA 4.0%
79 Ferndale, WA 4.0%
80 Mill Creek, WA 4.0%
81 Lake Forest Park, WA 4.0%
82 Lakewood, WA 4.0%
83 Edgewood, WA 4.0%
84 Battle Ground, WA 3.0%
85 Sunnyside, WA 3.0%
86 Toppenish, WA 3.0%
87 Tukwila, WA 3.0%
88 Oak Harbor, WA 3.0%
89 Vancouver, WA 3.0%
90 Kent, WA 3.0%
91 Wapato, WA 3.0%
92 Washougal, WA 3.0%
93 Kenmore, WA 3.0%
94 Issaquah, WA 3.0%
95 Woodinville, WA 3.0%
96 Woodland, WA 3.0%
97 Kirkland, WA 3.0%
98 Bellingham, WA 3.0%
99 Snoqualmie, WA 3.0%
100 Renton, WA 3.0%

How Is The Area In ?

About Chris Kolmar

Chris Kolmar has been in the real estate business for almost ten years now. He originally worked for Movoto Real Estate as the director of marketing before founding HomeSnacks.

He believes the key to finding the right place to live comes down to looking at the data, reading about things to do, and, most importantly, checking it out yourself before you move.

If you've been looking for a place to live in the past several years, you've probably stumbled upon his writing already.

You can find out more about him on LinkedIn or his website.