Jobs with the lowest divorce rates
The results are in, and it's official—divorce rates in America are on a downswing. A report from the Census Bureau released in October 2024 shows that marriage rates in the U.S. have held steady from 2008 to 2022, but divorces have become less common in that same time period. That's not because maintaining a happy marriage has gotten any easier, however—it takes a great deal of work, from managing work-life balance to navigating financial woes and everything in between. Studies have shown that people with stable, higher-paying jobs tend to experience lower divorce rates than those who don't earn as much money.
Couples who earn around $200,000 per year file for divorce at a rate of about 30%, according to 2019 data from the American Community Survey. In contrast, more than 40% of adults living below the poverty line had sought divorces.
It stands to reason that married couples who are less likely to encounter financial hardships will have a better chance of staying together. If both people in a marriage have high-paying jobs, they can use their combined wealth in mutually beneficial ways. Pharmacists, lawyers, and architects—fields that offer high average annual salaries and significant job stability—will have more money to provide for a family and pay their bills, can enjoy luxuries such as vacations, and generally lead fulfilling lives.
Stacker has compiled a list of 50 U.S. jobs with the lowest divorce rates using data from the 2001-2017 American Community Survey via IPUMS-USA—the U.S. Integrated Public Use Microdata Series—and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The majority of jobs on this list fall into the scientific, medical, and tech fields, and military jobs appear more than a few times.
Keep reading to find out the divorce and separation rates and the median salary for each job, and discover which job has the lowest divorce rate of all.
