WICHITA, Kan. (KAKE) – For better or for worse, more than 6,000 Kansans got divorced in 2019 according to the state’s health department. 

The statistics behind the numbers are shedding light on which groups are most often experiencing divorce.

  • More than 34 percent of marriages that ended in divorce in 2019 lasted four years or less. 
  • Couples with no kids accounted for more than 53 percent of divorces in 2019. Couples with four kids or more accounted for less than three percent of divorces. 
  • The average age at marriage dissolution was 38.7 years old for wives and 40.8 years old for husbands. 
  • Coffey, Anderson, Geary and Greeley counties recorded the most divorces in 2019 with 6.5 or more “marriage dissolutions per 1,000 population”

She says marital satisfaction works like a reverse bell-shaped curve. 

“You start to see kind of this dip in marital satisfaction just because of the life stressors that come with these different developmental stages,” she says. 

Jackson says marriage often becomes more enjoyable again when stressors dissipate. For example, when the kids head off to college, or a person nears retirement. 

“It’s about really getting to a place where you can have those open and honest conversations,” she says. 

In recent years, fewer people have been getting divorced, but fewer marriages have been taking place as well. 

In Kansas, in 1981, nearly 14,000 people dissolved their marriages. 

In 2019, the number of divorces was cut by more than half, with about 6,400 marriage dissolutions in the state. 

While divorces appear to have been on the downslide for the past several years, one Wichita baker says divorce celebrations have gained popularity. 

“I’ve been getting a lot of the divorce cakes lately,” says Lindsay Houser, the owner of Simply Sunday Cakes. “I don’t know if it’s fortunate or unfortunate.”

Jackson says ritualizing the divorce can be healthy. 

“It’s kind of part of that grieving process,” she says. 

It appears that, on average, Kansans may be experiencing that grief less than other Americans. 

Since 2013, the divorce rate in Kansas has been consistently lower than the national rate.