If you want to get married and stay married, it helps to have a college education.

College-educated men and women are more likely to stay married than those without a four-year degree, according to a new report by the Pew Research Institute, a nonpartisan think tank in Washington, D.C. Some 78% of women with a bachelor’s degree are likely to stay married for 20 years if it’s their first marriage, versus just 40% of women in a first marriage with a high school degree or less; while 65% of men with a bachelor’s degree who are married for the first time are likely to stay married for 20 years versus 50% of men with a high school diploma or less.

“A college degree is a good proxy indicator for economic resources,” says Susan Brown, professor and chair of sociology at Bowling Green State University in Ohio. “Highly educated couples enjoy more financial stability. Economic distress is a key predictor of divorce. Having plenty of money means one less thing to fight about.” (The probability of a lasting first marriage cited by Pew is derived from the National Survey of Family Growth, a nationally representative sample of women and men ages 15 to 44. They assume correlation rather than causation.)

Last year, government research also found that those without college degrees are 10 percentage points more likely to divorce. Just over one-quarter of those with a bachelor’s degree (26%) are likely to get divorced and more likely to get married than those with less education, according to the research by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics that was recently highlighted in a Wall Street Journal graphic. In contrast, the divorce rate is 42% for couples with some college or an associate’s degree, 43% for high school graduates and 48% for those with less than a high school diploma.

Using the “National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979” — a survey of people born between the baby boom years of 1957 to 1964 — the government data examine the marriage and divorce patterns for young baby boomers to age 46. It focuses on differences in marriage and divorce patterns by educational attainment and by age at marriage. Critically, the results only point to a correlation rather than causation. Men who earned a bachelor’s degree, for instance, were more likely to marry than men with less education. (One theory: they’re more financially able to do so.)

College-educated men are less likely to divorce than women, the research finds. Married men with only high school diplomas are 25 percentage points more likely to get divorced than men with a college degree, while the difference is only half that for women. One reason: only one-quarter of college-educated men divorce compared with 35% of college-educated women, and men with more education are also more likely to remarry after their first divorce. For women who have divorced, the propensity to remarry didn’t rise with education.

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College-educated men are less likely to divorce than women, the research also found. Married men with only high school diplomas are 25 percentage points more likely to get divorced than men with a college degree, while the difference is only half that for women. One reason: Only one-quarter of college-educated men divorce compared with 35% of college-educated women, and men with more education are also more likely to remarry after their first divorce. For women who have divorced, the propensity to remarry didn’t rise with education.

Arguments about money are a top indicator for divorce, according to Examining the Relationship Between Financial Issues and Divorce, an article published in the July 2013 edition of Family Relations, a journal published by the National Council on Family Relations. Women typically live longer than men, often have less saved for retirement and interact differently with financial planners, says Eve Kaplan of Kaplan Financial Advisors in Berkeley Heights, N.J. Unfortunately, some are also unprepared for the death of a spouse, she says.

Another reason for the difference in divorce rates may have more to do with age than education: College-educated couples tend to get married later in life — according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics — and they have a better idea of what they want and who they are as people, says Randy Kessler, an Atlanta-based lawyer who wrote the book, “Divorce: Protect Yourself, Your Kids, and Your Future.” “If you’ve gotten married at 17 and you’ve had one partner your whole life it’s human nature to think ‘what have I missed?’” Kessler says.

And the college campus is a petri dish of singletons often from similar socio-economic backgrounds and, perhaps equally important, with similar ambitions for the future. About 28% of married college graduates attended the same college, according to research by Facebook data scientists, compared with just 15% of married couples who attended the same high school. “College gives people a chance to explore,” Kessler says, and they can bond over Sartre or science. “They’re exposed to a few thousand people with somewhat similar interests.”

(This story was updated.)

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