---
title: "Divorce After a Long Marriage"
description: "According to a new Pew Research Center report on long-duration marriages and divorce, only about half the first marriages begun in the early 1970s lasted until their 25th anniversaries."
date: "2010-06-04"
authors:
  - name: "D’Vera Cohn"
    job_title: "Former Senior Writer/Editor"
    link: "https://www.pewresearch.org/staff/dvera-cohn/"
url: "https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2010/06/04/divorce-after-a-long-marriage/"
categories:
  - "Marriage & Divorce"
---

# Divorce After a Long Marriage

Census Bureau data can help answer the question of how likely it is that a long-lasting marriage, such as the 40-year-union of Al and Tipper Gore, will come to an end.

Only a small share of long-duration marriages end in divorce each year, but the likelihood that a first marriage remains intact dwindles with each anniversary. According to a new Pew Research Center [report on long-duration marriages and divorce](https://www.pewresearch.org/2010/06/04/at-long-last-divorce/), only about half the first marriages begun in the early 1970s lasted until their 25th anniversaries.