Those of you that know me well have heard me complain that its unbelievable how young people get married here in Texas. I also think marriage is more prevalent here in Texas. I have lived in Florida for 17 years, Ohio for 5 and Texas for 1.5 years. In the 1.5 years I have lived in Texas it seemed to me that more people were getting married here than anywhere else.
I decided to look it up. I wanted to see the marriage and divorce rate by state. Now, it is true Lubbock is a little different but I wanted to see the state average. What I found was the marriage rates per 1,000 people by state. In 2004, Nevada was the highest marriage rate with 62.4 per 1,000. OBVIOUSLY this is because of Vegas. In second place was Hawaii with 22.8 and this is of course because people go to Hawaii to get married.
So to compare the states I have lived in, Ohio has 6.6; Florida has 9.0; and Texas has 7.9 marriages per 1,000 people. The divorce rate is Ohio 3.6; Florida, 4.8; and Texas 3.6 per 1,000 people.
Here is some more statistics for you:
Under 20 years old: 27.6% of women get divorced, 11.7% of men.
20-24 years old, 36.6% of women get divorced, 38.8% of men get divorced.
So I have to ask, if you are in love, what is the rush? I am nowhere near the same person I was when I was 18. I am not the same person I was when I was 21. If you all are going to be together anyway why do you need to have the marriage? Why not wait until you are done with school and are settled in a life. Just does not make sense to me. the odds are certainly against you.