In the first six months of 1976, 987,000 couples were married and 538,000 divorced in the United States.​—The 1977 “World Almanac & Book of Facts.”

IN THE time it takes to read this page, four marriages will end in divorce​—in just the United States. Every minute, on the average, more than two marriages are official dissolved.

In some places divorces are approaching, if not exceeding, the number of marriages. In Los Angeles County alone, nearly 50,000 divorces are filed a year. DallaSite, a Texas newspaper, reports: “During the first half of 1975, Dallas County records show that there were more divorces filed than marriage licenses issued.” In all, 8,275 divorces were filed and 6,801 marriage licenses issued.

The speed at which people are shedding their mates is staggering and is still gathering momentum. Divorces more than doubled in the U.S. in ten years; from 1965 to 1975 they leaped from 479,000 to 1,026,000. In other countries, the rate of increase is much greater.

A Changed Society

First of all, tens of millions of lives have been disrupted, often tragically. MD magazine of March 1977 notes: “Counting spouses and children under 18, more than 4 million Americans annually ‘have their lives dramatically changed by divorce, and an equal number are estimated to experience desertion, the ‘poor man’s divorce.’”