Kay Hymnowitz reports:

According to new research, far from declining since 1980 as researchers thought, age-adjusted divorce rates have actually risen 40%.

She cites this new paper from Demography, by Sheela Kennedy and Steven Ruggles. The abstract is this:

This article critically evaluates the available data on trends in divorce in the United States. We find that both vital statistics and retrospective survey data on divorce after 1990 underestimate recent marital instability. These flawed data have led some analysts to conclude that divorce has been stable or declining for the past three decades. Using new data from the American Community Survey and controlling for changes in the age composition of the married population, we conclude that there was actually a substantial increase in age-standardized divorce rates between 1990 and 2008. Divorce rates have doubled over the past two decades among persons over age 35. Among the youngest couples, however, divorce rates are stable or declining. If current trends continue, overall age-standardized divorce rates could level off or even decline over the next few decades. We argue that the leveling of divorce among persons born since 1980 probably reflects the increasing selectivity of marriage.

You will find ungated versions here. I haven’t had a chance to paw through the argument, but it seemed worth passing along. Hat tip goes to Charles Murray on Twitter.