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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.
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:
- Cheapest Places To Live In Washington
- Best Places To Live In Washington
- Most Dangerous Cities In Washington
/10
Population: 7,607
Divorce Rate: 11.0%
Divorcees: 669
Median Income: $45,195
More on Chehalis: Cost Of Living | Crime Report
/10
Population: 8,570
Divorce Rate: 10.0%
Divorcees: 685
Median Income: $44,191
More on Hoquiam: Cost Of Living | Crime Report
/10
Population: 9,085
Divorce Rate: 10.0%
Divorcees: 726
Median Income: $55,451
More on Burlington: Cost Of Living | Crime Report
/10
Population: 5,330
Divorce Rate: 10.0%
Divorcees: 426
Median Income: $73,750
More on Sultan: Cost Of Living | Crime Report
/10
Population: 17,473
Divorce Rate: 9.0%
Divorcees: 1,258
Median Income: $40,625
More on Centralia: Cost Of Living | Crime Report
/10
Population: 7,957
Divorce Rate: 9.0%
Divorcees: 572
Median Income: $58,854
More on Selah: Cost Of Living | Crime Report
/10
Population: 6,288
Divorce Rate: 9.0%
Divorcees: 452
Median Income: $53,333
More on Prosser: Cost Of Living | Crime Report
/10
Population: 8,885
Divorce Rate: 9.0%
Divorcees: 639
Median Income: $54,690
More on Airway Heights: Cost Of Living | Crime Report
/10
Population: 5,518
Divorce Rate: 8.0%
Divorcees: 353
Median Income: $71,831
More on Connell: Cost Of Living | Crime Report
/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:
- Cheapest Places To Live In Washington
- Best Places To Live In Washington
- Most Dangerous Cities In Washington