D.C.’s divorce rate sits below the national average and its neighbors’

By Celeste Varga

WASHINGTON — The District is famous for its weddings: more of them per resident than almost anywhere in the country. It is less famous for what happens afterward. On that front, the capital turns out to be fairly steady.

D.C. recorded 2.1 divorces and annulments per 1,000 residents in 2024, according to provisional figures from the National Center for Health Statistics. That is a little below the national rate of 2.3, and below both neighbors: Maryland’s rate was 2.8 and Virginia’s was 2.6.

Among the 45 states that reported divorce data to NCHS for 2024, only eight had lower rates than the District. Louisiana had the lowest, at 0.8, followed by Illinois at 1.3, Massachusetts at 1.5, Kansas at 1.7 and Iowa at 1.8. D.C. tied with Arizona and Pennsylvania at 2.1. (California, Hawaii, Indiana, Minnesota and New Mexico do not report divorce figures to the federal government, so the national rate excludes them.)

The long view

The District’s divorce rate has been falling for decades, in step with the rest of the country. In 1990 it was 4.5 per 1,000 residents. By 2000 it had fallen to 3.2. It hit a low of 1.7 in 2007, then hovered between 2.5 and 2.9 for most of the 2010s.

*The national rate excludes states that do not report; the list of excluded states has changed over time. Source: NCHS, National Vital Statistics System, provisional counts.

The pandemic year shows up clearly in the regional figures. Maryland’s rate dropped to 1.7 in 2020, then rebounded to 2.6 the next year. The District’s rate rose to 2.6 in 2021 before falling back.

Why the numbers need a footnote

The comparison with the District’s marriage rate is tempting and mostly meaningless. D.C. recorded 10.1 marriages per 1,000 residents in 2024, against 6.3 nationally, as the Inquisitor reported last week. But NCHS counts both marriages and divorces by where they happen, not where the couple lives. Many couples who marry in the District live in Maryland or Virginia, and if they part ways, they are likely to do so in their home state’s courts. A couple married at a downtown hotel and divorced in Rockville counts once in each column, in two different jurisdictions.

Residency rules reinforce the split. Under D.C. Code § 16-902, no action for divorce or legal separation can be brought unless one spouse has been a bona fide resident of the District for at least six months. There is one exception: same-sex couples who married in the District can divorce here even if neither lives in D.C., if their home jurisdiction will not hear the case.

The NCHS figures are also provisional. They include annulments, and for some places they count divorce petitions filed or legal separations rather than final decrees.

The District’s version of no-fault

Once a couple qualifies, the District asks for very little explanation. Under D.C. Code § 16-904, a divorce “may be granted upon the assertion by one or both parties that they no longer wish to remain married.” The statute requires no finding of fault and sets no period of separation. A legal separation, for couples who want to live apart without ending the marriage, can be granted on one spouse’s assertion that they “intend to pursue a separate life without obtaining a divorce.”

Annulment is a different matter. The same section lists five narrow grounds, including a marriage entered into while one spouse was still married to someone else, or one obtained by fraud or coercion.

Divorce cases in the District are heard by the Family Court of D.C. Superior Court.

In a city where people schedule everything, a divorce rate that has barely moved in three years may be the most predictable thing about it.

The Inquisitor is asking D.C. Superior Court’s Family Court for current filing counts, the National Center for Health Statistics about 2025 data, the D.C. Bar’s family law community and the D.C. Council’s Committee on the Judiciary and Public Safety whether any changes to the divorce statute are pending.