LETTER: Utah divorce rate higher than national average

Dear Editor,

I am not currently a student, but often read the Statesman – out of personal habit more than any form of respect for the paper. Anyway, in a recent letter to the editor it was claimed that Utah’s divorce rate is much lower than the national average. Where she got this information is unknown. But wherever she got it, it is false. According to American Demographics magazine, 52 percent of all Utah marriages end in divorce; whereas the national average is 49 percent. Also according to American Demographics, the percent of domestic abuse cases is much higher in Utah than it is nationally.

In stark contrast to the letter’s claims, I am convinced that hormones have a lot to do with many a Mormon’s decision to marry at an early age, and the above statistics support this. Only when it is too late, and they grow up a bit more, do many of these couples married as juveniles realize the mistake they have made.

There are exceptions, of course – 48 percent of the marriages in Utah are exceptions, in fact.

Dylan Avenbury