Marriage and Divorce Data 1968-1995

The data for 1968-1988 consist of single year marriage and divorce data files. The data for the 1989-1995 Marriage and Divorce Data Set consists of two files, the marriage file (1,357,710 observations) and the divorce file (893,770 observations). The data are based on information from marriage and divorce certificates and include all records for States with small numbers of events and a sample of records for States with larger numbers of events.

This page contains the NBER collection of Marriage and Divorce Data of the National Vital Statistics System of the National Center for Health Statistics.

NCHS stopped producing the Marriage and Divorce files after 1995 due to lack of funds.

Marriage microdata includes variables such as date of marriage, state residency, education, previous marital status, number of marriages, and ages of bride and groom. Divorce microdata include variables such as number or children under 18, custody, month and year of marriage, marriage duration, number of marriages, age, race, and state residency of husband and wife.

Use of this data signifies agreement with NCHS data use rules. Works referring to the datasets or codebooks should contain a citation to NCHS. Published material derived from this data should include a citation such as this at the bottom of the table: "Source: National Center for Health Statistics (span of years used)"

The published material should also include a disclaimer that credits any analyses, interpretations, or conclusions reached to the author (recipient of the data file) and not to NCHS, which is responsible only for the initial data.

Documentation is available below.

NBER internal users can obtain the data from a UNIX shell at /homes/data/marrdivo ( or marriage or divorce ) or on an NBER PC via Network Neighborhood --> NBER --> home --> data --> marrdivo

Updates and changes.

Marriage

Other Related Marriage Files:

Codebook (1989-1995) - cpmarr.cbk

SAS code (1989-1995) - cpmarr.sas

Divorce

Other Related Divorce Files:

Codebook (1989-1995) - cpdivo.cbk

SAS code (1989-1995) - cpdivo.sas

Additional 1988-1995 Documentation

All Documentation Below, Pkzipped - md_doc.zip

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Introduction File - intro 

Marriage File Record Layout - marrlyo

Divorce File Record Layout - divrlyo

Marriage and Divorce Technical Appendix for 1988 - tech88

1988 Marriage Table A -- States Reporting Items of Information - marr88a

1988 Marriage Table B -- Sampling Rates & Sample Size - marr88b

1988 Divorce Table A -- States Reporting Items of Information - div88a

1988 Divorce Table B -- Sampling Rates & Sample Size - div88b

Marriage Addendum, Tables A & B - m89, m90, m91, m92, m93, m94, m95

Divorce Addendum, Tables A & B - d89, d90, d91, d92, d93, d94, d95

Contents Report - marrdivo